The Ultimate Sophistication
by LeoInuyuka
Summary: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. She, unfortunately, had neither. OC-Centric
1. A Not Too Terrible Day

Chapter 1

A Not Too Terrible Day

* * *

To: leagueoflegendsluver2008

From: rinrinforthewin

_Dear Ichisada Hideaki-san,_

_I am currently in my last year at Inku Middle School and I have all intentions on joining the newspaper club next year. Seirin High School was only just founded, so I am making an assumption that your club is low in numbers._

_I have attached samples of my writing and I am hoping that I will be accepted into the club._

_At Inku, I was Head of the Sports Section of the news and have become familiar with most sports. My strengths lie in that particular type of writing._

_My weaknesses, on the other hand, lie in creating actual stories, so I believe that the newspaper club will be a good place for my particular skills._

_Thank you for your consideration,_

_Kobayashi Rin_

* * *

To: rinrinforthewin

From: leagueoflegendsluver2008

_Dear Kobayashi Rin-san,_

_Your writing was very impressive for an incoming first-year to Seirin. The newspaper club would be proud to have you accepted._

_Additionally, I have assigned a second-year student to be your editor, but she will be introduced to you on the first day of club activities._

_Because of your previous experience in sports writing, I have decided to place you in the sports column. At Seirin, the sports are very important and receive an entire page to themselves. I hope you enjoy it. __I have a handful of second-years working on the sports section as well, so you will not have to shoulder the burden entirely._

_However, you are going to be particularly focused on the basketball team and I am going to have expectations of a report every other day, excluding weekends._

_If there is a problem, please notify me immediately._

_Your assignment begins immediately on the first day, where Head Coach Aida Riko will be hosting tryouts. Tryouts will be on both the first and second days of school while the official initiation of members will be on the third. Aida-san has requested your presence at all three._

_Please have your first article prepared for editing on the third day, and deliver it to club room #8._

_Welcome to the Newspaper Club,_

_Ichisada Hideaki_

* * *

I leaned back in my desk chair, rereading the email, a handful of colored candy in my hand. The spring of my first year in high school had been pleasantly warm, but not so that the color of the candy would bleed into my hand.

And that was a blessing on it's own, since the year before had been so scorching that it had led students at Inku Middle to go to the opening ceremony in swimsuits.

(I may or may not have been one of them.)

Oh, school.

It was truly the bane of every human being, the existence of an institution formulated solely for the purpose of stuffing useless information into people's minds until it doesn't seem possible to shove anymore in and then they do it regardless.

"Ri-Rin, I'll drive you to school if you want!"

Mom's loud call dragged me out of my painfully accurate rant and back into the real world.

In the corner of my laptop screen was the time, taunting me with the horrifying prospect of going to Hell- I mean high school. School was starting in twenty minutes, so I would probably be ten minutes early if my mom drove me. But if she drove me, that means I wouldn't have to walk.

"Coming!"

* * *

Seirin was completely empty when I arrived.

I waved my mom off - no, she did not need to wait for other people to arrive and yes, I did have my lunch and no, I would not let her take pictures.

I had been to Seirin once before, with the tour group from Inku Middle, last fall. But that had been last autumn entirely, and with a slightly hazy memory, I made my way to the gymnasium, where I would be spending a majority of my after-school time that year.

I blame Ichisada.

The wooden floors had recently been waxed, the scent pungent in the stagnant air. I almost gagged - they really had to open a window in there.

I stood in the doorway a moment longer, hoping to air out the gym as much as possible. Finally, I decided that it was someone else's problem that the gigantic room reeked of lemon preservatives, and turned to walk out.

And smashed my face into a wall.

* * *

...okay, maybe it wasn't a wall. But it might as well have been, considering how my nose started bleeding.

It was actually a person, a person who realized that they had possibly broken my nose and immediately began their apologies.

"Oh shit- you alright?"

"I tink so." my voice was muffled, painfully so, and I tried to ignore the blood leaking from my nostrils. "I go now. Bye bye."

I rushed around the giant - he must've been almost two meters - and down the hall, desperately in search of a bathroom.

* * *

The opening ceremony was fairly interesting, considering how I went through most of it with tissues stuffed up my nose to stop the bleeding. Thankfully, no one pointed it out, or asked about it, though I did attract more than a fair share of odd looks from passerbys.

After the opening ceremony, students were encouraged to walk among the club booths and make at least one choice of clubs, but that was only a suggestion.

It took only a minute to locate a map, but it took a little over a half hour to find the newspaper club. On my way, I had all sorts of papers shoved at me from all sorts of groups - the Gardening Club, the Baseball Club, the Disciplinary Committee - and as I approached the newspaper club booth, I dumped all of the paperwork into the trash, along with the tissues from my bloody nose.

A single boy was sitting at the newspaper booth, reading a manga - the fifth edition of Shingeki no Kyojin - a pair of thickly framed black glasses resting on the edge of his nose.

I stepped in front of the table, taking a seat in the chair in front of the booth.

The boy didn't look up from his book.

I cleared my throat.

The boy sighed, dragging himself away from the book to meet my eyes, with a single eyebrow cocked. "I assure you, miss, that I am listening, though it may appear that I am not. Please, speak your mind."

"My name is Kobayashi Rin, and Ichisada-san placed me in charge of the basketball team's reports and articles?"

"I am aware."

Wow. Were all second-years going to be absolute dickheads like this? "And uhh, I was just wondering if I had paperwork or something that I would have to complete."

The boy dog-eared his page - he was absolutely destroying that poor volume - and set the book onto the table. "One moment please."

He reached down under the table and dug around in a large cardboard box, pulling out a stack of papers with him. He set them down on the table, and began to explain to me which each one was.

There was a general information sheet, a sample of what a report should look like, a map of where the newspaper club meets, a calendar for _when_ the newspaper club meets and a basic explanation of who most people were, including the head, the assistant head, editor-in-chief, the assistant editor and the club supervisor.

"The first meeting is actually on the third day of school," he told me, pushing the sheets towards me. "the same day that your first report is due. I apologize on behalf of the club about the sudden request for a report, before the first meeting."

"It's alright," I assured him, even though he didn't look too sorry about it. "I was wondering what the purpose of the reports are, though."

"Well, a report is sort of like your research, the information, the notes and everything you've gathered," the boy said, simply. "All of it should be related into one sort of subtopic for the team, for example, all about one game, or maybe about the tryouts. After the subtopic is approved by your second-year editor, you shall compose it into an article that will then have to be approved by the second-year editor once more, and then along to the editor-in-chief."

I blinked. "That's a lot to take in..."

"It's all written in the manual," he shrugged, grabbing a thick booklet from a stack on the table and adding it onto my stack. "Do you have a notebook for today, or some sort of computer? You will, after all, begin your first report after school, during the basketball tryouts."

"Uhh, I have a composition book-"

"That will do fine, however, I suggest that you bring a laptop computer, or purchase one quickly, since it will be easier to write reports with that to assist you." the boy grabbed his manga again, and began reading it.

I took that as a dismissal, and began to tuck the papers into my bag. I pushed the chair back under the table and bowed slightly. I had to show respect to an upperclassman, even if he had treated me shortly. "Thank you very much..."

"Did I forget to introduce myself?" he wondered to himself, eyes never leaving the page. "I'm Ichisada Hideaki. It was a pleasure."

I stared. This was the head of the newspaper club?

"I'll see you soon, Kobayashi-san."

* * *

What would my first report be about?

Ichisada had mentioned that he expected the report to be on tryouts, or games. But where was the interest in writing about how the coach was going to kick some people out and keep some people in?

It couldn't be what he expected - that's not good. It's my first report, and if I was going to make it big in the newspaper club, I can't just be a sheep that does whatever is expected.

I'd have to do things my own way.

* * *

"Uh, is this the basketball club booth?"

A pretty girl was sitting behind a long table, beside a very tall boy. She looked very neat, her hair clipped short, but with a strict expression. The boy looked more welcoming, though he was half-asleep, thin glasses sliding down his nose.

The girl looked excited, though, to have a visitor, and all but leaped out of her seat. "Yes! This is the Seirin Basketball Club-" she turned to her partner, whose head was drooping off to the side. "Hyuga-kun! This is no time for sleeping!"

The poor guy was slapped on the side of his head, and he jolted awake, his glasses knocked askew. "Wha- Did we win?"

"Are you here to sign up?" the girl asked, excitedly, her expression lighting up.

"I'm not here to sign up," I said, apologetically, as the girl's smile dropped. "I'm actually the school reporter from the newspaper club that has been assigned to the Seirin's basketball game. I will be attending all of the games, as per usual, and the tryouts, as you requested."

The girl stared at me for a moment, before everything apparently clicked together in her head. "Oh, you must be Konoyoshi Rila!"

"Actually, it's Kobayashi Rin, but there's not much of a difference." I corrected, as politely as I could. I didn't want her to _hate_ me. "Are you the manager?"

The boy - Hyuga, as she had called him previously - snickered, coughing into his hand to mask his laughter.

The girl shot him a dark look, but smiled prettily at me. "No, I'm the coach. My name is Aida Riko, it's a pleasure to meet you."

I stared. The coach was a second-year girl? _Putting gender roles to shame all over the place._

"Please call me Riko." Aida Riko shoved a thumb in Hyuga's direction. "This is the captain of the team, Hyuga Junpei, but he's an idiot."

"I'm not going to get any respect from anyone if you keep stressing me out like this, Coach." he told her, fixing his glasses. Hyuga Junpei turned to look at me, sizing me up. After a tense moment, he announced, "You're an absolute midget, aren't you?"

I dropped my bag. Aida Riko looked like she was about to bodyslam him into next year, but I held up my hand. "I am 149 centimeters. At my old school, Inku Middle School, I faced ridicule for my impossible height. Please, Hyuga Junpei-san, do not let me face ridicule here."

He suddenly looked awkward. "I, uhh-"

"I'm kidding, oh my god." I snorted, picking up my bag. "I didn't think you'd actually believe me. I come from a long line of short people, okay?"

"Well, I come from a long line of tall people."

"Obviously." I grabbed one of the two chairs that were under the table and pulled it out next to their table, out of the way. "Riko-san, can we discuss the schedule for when I'll be attending the basketball events?"

"Of course!" she rummaged through her school bag for a moment, digging out a heavily worn clipboard. "You're going to show up during all of the tryouts, practice games, practices leading up to practice games, games, practices leading up to games, tournaments, social events for the team, training camps, tradition events, video watching of the other teams, regular watching of the other teams with me and any other specified events."

So I'd basically be at everything. "...can you write that all down for me or something?"

She handed me a sheet of paper. "I had it ready for you, Kobayashi-san."

"Oh, you can just call me Rin..." I said, absentmindedly, reading through the schedule.

"Can I call you Rin?" Hyuga asked, leaning back in his chair. When Riko sent him a suspicious look, he quickly amended his statement. "I just want to be a good captain!"

"Sure, sure, whatever." I flipped the page of the schedule. I would have to get like an agenda or something, to keep all of my sudden activities in order. The weekly newspaper club meetings _and_ the basketball club? This was going to be awful. "Riko-san, does this schedule say that I show up at every practice?"

"Yes." she nodded. "If you write about the practices, then I can gather information from what sorts of things that you, as an outsider with experience from observing other schools' basketball teams, notice."

"...am I literally just showing up at every single event that has to do with this team?"

"...yes." she sheepishly admitted. "And hopefully, we all become such great friends that you will come to social events outside of the team!"

"Is there any other information that I should know, Riko-san, Hyuga-san?" I stood up, pushing the chair in, shouldering my bag.

"Actually, Rin-san, will you stay here with us during the club recruiting?" Riko asked, a smile growing on her face. "I'd like for you to see all of the new potential players that would be coming in. I have this great idea for your first article-"

I zoned out about then, which was probably really rude, because A) she's my upperclassman and B) she had been really nice to me about everything. But, she was trying to give me suggestions for my writing, and wow, that is unfortunately something I was not good with. I wanted this sports column to be by _me_, not by Aida Riko. I would come up with my own ideas and I would write them down.

"I actually have an idea for the first article right now, Riko-san." I lied, standing up again, bag slung over my shoulder again. "I'll be at tryouts this afternoon, alright?"

She blinked. "Wait, what-"

But I was already gone. "Bye, Riko-san, Hyuga-san!"

* * *

"You've officially been ditched, Coach."

"Shut up, Hyuga-kun, or I'll double your training regime."

"Noted."

* * *

My classroom was Class 1-B, but there was nothing significant about the class. I sat in the far right back corner, the furthest from the window, but closest to the door.

As I twirled a pencil around in my hand, I absently realized that if anyone was going to survive a fire in this entire classroom, it was me.

"...ashi-san!"

_Everyone else in that room would die._

"...bayashi-san!"

_God diddly damn._

"Kobayashi-san!"

I was startled, jumping out of my seat. "What?"

The teacher rolled his eyes. "Attendance."

"Oh, I'm here."

The teacher gave me a warning look - yikes, I'm totally on his radar for the rest of the year - before continuing on with roll call.

* * *

Basketball tryouts began fifteen minutes after school let out, according to my schedule, so I made a quick stop to the school convenience store, buying an agenda.

I could fill that out during tryouts during breaks or parts that were unimportant to me.

* * *

I arrived with the players, who immediately filtered into the locker rooms to switch out of their uniforms. I got a few odd looks from them, probably wondered who I was, because apparently, girls don't play sports and if they did, they would receive odd looks anyways.

Riko immediately waved me over to her, where she was talking to a tall boy in blue. "Rin-san! I want you to meet the second-years!"

I nodded once, rushing over to her side, the one place that felt less awkward than everywhere else. "My name is Kobayashi Rin, and I'm in Class 1-B. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The boy who she was talking to turned to face me - he looked uncannily like Roy Mustang from the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, but I tried ferociously to ignore that fact. "I'm Izuki Shun and I hope I get to go Rin-side you-"

Hyuga Junpei, bless his soul, appeared out of nowhere, locking Izuki Shun in a chokehold. "Rin-san, if he ever makes a comment like that again, I give you permission to snap him in half."

"My name is Tsuchida Satoshi. I look forward to spending this season with you, Reporter-san." Tsuchida Satoshi looked quiet and shy, but in that moment... he decided my fate.

Some guy from behind Hyuga, one of the shorter members I had met, with a mouth curved up in a grin that resembled a cat's, laughed out brightly. "Reporter-san, is it? I'm Koganei Shinji, lookin' forward to seein' ya all the time! Also, you can call me Koga!"

"Please don't call me 'Reporter-san'."

I looked to the last member of the presumed third-years, a tall boy who waved politely back. "Uhh, hi."

"That's Mitobe Rinnosuke." Koga introduced. "He doesn't talk much."

"It's nice to meet you, Mitobe-san."

Just then, the first-years began flooding out of the locker rooms and I took that as my cue to go. "Riko-san, where should I set up and chill?"

Riko hummed, looking around the gym, thoughtfully. "I suppose right beside Takeda-sensei... he's our advisor. However, when we go outside for drills, like running, I'll be leading them around on a golf-cart, and since you're going to be observing, you'll have to come along. You can ride with the golf-cart with me, though. You might not want to bring your computer then."

"I left my computer behind today, since I was unaware of Seirin's technology policies, but I will bring it in tomorrow and everyday after this." I told her, gathering my things.

"I'll call you over in a moment though," she warned, "for introductions and all."

"Got it, Coach."

* * *

"Hey, isn't the manager cute?" Furihata Koki whispered to the boy to his left. They were both strangers, so Furihata felt less uncomfortable about admitting it.

There were two girls, one of them shorter than the other. The taller one was presumably the manager, with short light brown hair pinned back to the side. She smiled at the smaller girl, sending her off towards the coach, an old man, who looked half-asleep.

Kawahara Koichi tilted his head, looking at her. "Isn't she a second-year? Maybe if she was a little sexier... you know?"

Hyuga, who had casually been standing behind them, smacked the two of them upside the head. "_Morons_. You're wrong."

"What?" Koichi and Koki turned to face the girl, who had tugged a pink whistle out of her pocket and hung it around her neck.

"My name is Aida Riko and I'm the boys' basketball team coach."

* * *

I was 50% sure that Takeda-sensei was dead.

He was just sitting there, and when I waved my hand in front of his face, there was no response.

I was tempted to check his pulse and breathing, but if he was alive, then he'd definitely notice that.

But if he was dead...

I had my hand under his nose, feeling his shaky breath against my skin.

Good, I exhaled. He's alive.

* * *

"That's Takeda-sensei, he's our... advisor? ...Rin-san, what are you doing?"

I froze. My hand was still over Takeda-sensei's nose. From their angle, it _probably_ looked like I was trying to suffocate him. "I, uhh, wasn't sure if he was still breathing."

"I assure you, little lady, I am quite un-dead." Takeda-sensei laughed, startling me away from his side.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry, I thought you were dead, I swear, I wasn't trying to like kill you or anything-" I was rambling, and I knew it. When I'm flustered, I literally speak so fast, that barely anyone can understand me. I picked it up from my sister, so you can blame her.

"Rin-san, it's alright." Riko was laughing, along with all of the second-years and most of the first-year recruits. "Come up and introduce yourself."

I scrambled up, grabbing my composition book, tripping over my shoes to stand beside her. "I'm Kobayashi Rin of Class 1-B! I like to read manga, watch movies, chocolate bars, but with no nuts, vanilla milk and strawberry milk! I do not like poor manga translations, waiting for movies to come out on the DVD, chocolate cake or chocolate bars with nuts in them!" I bowed deeply. "It is an honor to meet you all!"

There was complete silence.

Izuki Shun cleared his throat. "Reporter-san, I think that Coach meant for you to explain _why_ you are here."

I rose out of my bow, cheeks flushing. This was definitely going into the records as one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. "I'm a member of the newspaper club, and I will be writing reports and articles on the basketball team. I will be with the team all throughout the season, and if I do a good job, perhaps for the rest of high school."

"Do you have any questions?" Riko asked the first-years, who glanced uncertainly between each other. "Alright, now that everyone is acquainted with each other..." her personality took a 180 degree turn here. "Take off your shirts!"

* * *

Okay, this was definitely one of the perks of being the newspaper club girl assigned to the boys' basketball team.

I stood beside Riko - I hadn't been dismissed yet, so I felt like it would be awkward if I just walked away. Not to mention, half-naked guys is always a plus.

Not like any of them were much to look at.

Riko was going around, pointing out their flaws and suggesting ways to improve them.

The boys were completely startled, but she simply moved on to the next.

It was quite impressive, the way she was labeling stats onto everyone, understanding the stats and making suggestions based upon those stats.

As she came to the end of the row, to the tallest of the first-years, I stared. He was a giant, looking almost two meters.

"Hey!" I jumped, recognizing him. "You're the guy who bloodied my nose this morning!"

He stared at me blankly for a moment, before recognition dawned on him. "Oh, you're the little kid who ran off immediately. Is it broken?"

"Nah, it was just bloodied." I smiled at him. "Thank you, however, for your concern."

"Sure."

"What's your name?"

"Kagami Taiga."

"Oh, I'm Kobayashi Rin."

"I heard."

Riko raised an eyebrow at me, lost from her lack of understanding.

"Oh, I literally ran into him this morning and my nose started bleeding," I shrugged. "He was very polite about it though."

Riko leaned in and whispered to me, "Kagami Taiga looks the most promising of the batch."

I nodded, "Of course, I mean, he was slightly (not really) concerned about my nose."

She stared at me for a moment longer, before looking back at her clipboard. "Anyways, I guess that's everyone. ...wait, where is Kuroko Tetsuya? Is Kuroko-kun here?"

I tapped the bottoms of my toes on the ground. Was I really needed? I wasn't getting any good information for my article through this. I wasn't even sure what the article was even going to be about.

But I couldn't look like I was slacking. On the composition book I held, I scribbled out some meaningless phrases that would look like notes.

_Large batch of first-years_

_Kagami Taiga - most promising of first-years_

"Kuroko?" Hyuga repeated, looking towards Riko. "Isn't that the kid from Teiko?"

"It looks like Kuroko-kun is absent today." Riko began to mark something down on her clipboard. "That's alright. Okay, we're going to start running-"

"Um, excuse me." a soft voice called out, from beside me. I whipped around, to see a relatively short boy with a shock of blue hair standing in front of Riko. "I'm Kuroko."

Riko screamed.

I almost did too.

That boy had literally came out of nowhere, appearing almost right in front of me.

"When did you get here?!" Hyuga seemed equally startled.

Blue-haired kid, or Kuroko, turned to look at him blankly. "I've been here the whole time."

"So you're from the Generation of Miracles?" Koga asked, excitedly. "You couldn't have been a regular, right?"

"O' course not. Right, Kuroko-kun?" Hyuga laughed on, after him, trying to ease the rising tension.

I scowled. Treating people based on their appearances was rude. "Kuroko-san could be a very talented basketball player, despite his diminutive stature, _Hyuga Junpei_."

"I did play in games." Kuroko piped up, looking slightly affronted. I would have been too.

"Okay, calm down, everyone!" Riko ordered. "Kuroko-kun, take off your shirt."

He obliged.

Her eyes calculated out the statistics, and she looked startled.

"...is something wrong?" Kuroko asked, blinking.

"No, no... Hyuga-kun, please show the first-years outside. We're going to start with endurance running."

Everyone groaned simultaneously.

I turned to see Kuroko Tetsuya's reaction, but he was already gone. I swallowed, scribbling down on my composition book.

_Kuroko Tetsuya - Teiko Middle School, part of Generation of Miracles first-string since he participated in games_

_Kuroko Tetsuya has low presence, but high potential as of his middle school_

_Kuroko Tetsuya is invisible_

* * *

I sat beside Riko in the golf cart. She began to drive at a slow pace, the basketball team trailing lazily behind us. She slowly began to increase her pace, and eventually, the panting breaths of the basketball team were the only sound on the outside fields.

Riko wasn't paying much attention as to where she was going. She seemed to be lost in her thoughts, her mind a million miles away.

"Kuroko Tetsuya-san sure was something, huh?" I tried to spark conversation.

Riko's eyes flickered over to me, as if remembering I existed. "I'm not sure... He appeared out of nowhere, but when I saw his statistics... they were below average. There's no way he could have been a regular on a team with a nickname like 'Generation of Miracles'."

"I dunno," I shrugged. "He does have a low presence, but I liked his personality, very straight-forward and honest. His intelligence is clear, and from a team like Teiko, he has to have immense technique abilities."

Riko made a face. "I wouldn't bet on it."

"I would," I replied, honestly. "The Inku Middle School basketball team played against Teiko once and I will never forget it. Each of the Generation of Miracles is like a specialist. We simply have to find what Kuroko-san specializes in."

She sighed, "Are you sure?"

"Positive." I responded, confidently. "What about Kagami Taiga-san? I thought he looked like he had quite the determination. His build is quite large, but he moves well. His strength is going to be in his jump. He's going to be skilled at dunking, but all sorts of alley-oops. I wasn't sure about his statistics though. I can't see statistics like you can, but I can make assumptions."

She thought for a moment. "I can think of general movements that the player will have, based on their statistics, but you're putting it into context. You're a very skilled analyst, Rin-san. But yes, Kagami-kun has incredibly above-average statistics and he will definitely be an ace for our team. He just returned from America, so Hyuga-kun and I think he learned from the source."

"His stamina is dreadful though," I said, glancing back behind us, where Kagami was trailing the pack.

"Don't worry," Riko smiled. "I'm going to increase everyone's endurance tenfold this season."

* * *

While Riko hollered at Kagami to hurry it up, I jot down the new information in the composition book.

_Kagami Taiga - recently returned from America, learned it from the source_

_Kagami Taiga is going to be a powerful jumper, his strength lying in dunks and alley-oops_

_Kagami Taiga is the ace_

* * *

The second day of school, I was stopped in the hall by Kagami Taiga.

"You're close with the coach, right?" he was looking down at me, eyes narrowed slightly.

"Uhh, I don't know. I guess. I mean, I haven't really talked to anyone, since I'm like the only person who came here from Inku Middle School, so everyone is a stranger. She's the closest person to me at this school, I don't know if she reciprocates those friendly emotions. I feel like Kuroko-san, I guess, because he also was the only one who came here from his middle school basketball team, since the others went on to prestigious basketball schools-" I was babbling again.

"Stop talking." he ordered.

I flushed. "Got it."

Kagami shifted, suddenly looking uncomfortable. "Am I getting on this basketball team or not?"

"Actually, I'm not supposed to tell you anything-" I told him, hesitantly.

"Help out a guy." he said, his expression looking really sad. "Help out... a _friend_."

"Oh, wow, way to pull at the heartstrings, Kagami-san. Wait, since we're friends, can I call you 'Kagami-kun'? Or maybe even 'Taiga-san'. Or perhaps, 'Taiga-kun', right-"

"Let's just keep it at Kagami. No need for a suffix." he forced a smile. "Well?"

"Well, _Kagami_, my dear friend," I leaned forward and gestured for him to crouch so I could whisper in his ear. "we all think you have incredible levels of potential and you are far above average. When you're on the team-"

"So I'm on the team?"

"-you will definitely be our ace."

"I'm on the team!" he grinned then, a painfully bright smile. "Thanks, Kobayashi."

"You can call me Rin, since we're friends." I beamed up at him.

"See you at practice."

"Bye-bye, _Kagami!_"

* * *

As Kagami walked away, he grinned. "I totally fooled her."

"That was rude to do to Kobayashi-san." a voice informed him.

For a moment, Kagami wondered if it was his conscience telling him how he truly felt about pulling one over on the shorter girl, but then he realized that he recognized that voice. "Oh, it's you again."

Kuroko Tetsuya stood beside him, giving him a blank look. "Kobayashi-san is painfully naive and you aren't helping her problem."

"When did you get here?" Kagami demanded.

"Lying to her about friendship is cruel, since she has no friends from this school," Kuroko continued, not missing a beat. "You heard her."

"She knows I was just kidding-"

"She really doesn't. Please treat Kobayashi-san properly, Kagami-kun." Kuroko shook his head once, before disappearing into the crowded hallway.

* * *

I was so proud of myself. I had two (possibly three?) friends at Seirin and it was only the second day.

Aida Riko was super nice and treated me equally even though I was a year her junior, but also took my input on basketball into consideration, even though out of the two of us, she had more experience with evaluations of players.

There was also Kagami Taiga, who had came back from America, but had expressed concern for me when he bloodied my nose - which was all my fault, and a complete accident - and I had even managed to help him out about the basketball tryouts. When he joined the team, I'd be able to give him all sorts of advice and we'd be best friends.

When I would get married, Kagami would be my best man and Riko would be my head bridesmaid, it was official.

I brought my laptop to practice that day. It was raining outside, so I wouldn't get any one-on-one time with Riko, while the boys ran behind us, so instead, she organized a practice match between the second-years and the first-years.

I took this time to begin organizing the information for my report, which I would submit to my editor as soon as possible. I had to follow the previously established outline for the reports, which had been one of the papers given to me by Ichisada during the club recruitment the day before.

**Article Topic:  
**

I still wasn't sure what I was going to be writing for my article. I definitely had to write about the tryouts, because that had been the most recent and most important information. I also wanted to write about Kagami Taiga's incredible potential and about the mysterious Kuroko Tetsuya.

I stared at the cursor for a moment longer, before deciding on my topic.

**Article** **Topic:**_ First-Year Recruits_

**Main Points:**_ Kagami Taiga, recently returned from Japan, has what could possibly be the most incredible potential that Coach Aida Riko has ever seen, with amazingly well-rounded statistics that rank high in all categories._

_Kuroko Tetsuya is from Teiko Middle School, a school with a reputation for producing amazing basketball players that even have a title: the Generation of Miracles. Kuroko is among this Generation of Miracles and was first-string back at Teiko._

_With powerful players such as these, this year, Seirin could win the Interhigh and Winter Cup tournaments._

It was a very simple report, but it held facts that I know to be true. Kagami has amazing potential and Kuroko was a part of the Generation of Miracles.

"Riko-san!" I called out to the girl who was acting as referee. "I have to go run a report down to Club Room #8, I will be back as soon as possible."

She nodded. "Of course, Rin-san."

* * *

I was finished with my report a day early. If my editor approved of it, I could have the actual article done by tomorrow, since I got so much time during basketball practice and I only had a short paragraph to write.

After following the map that I had been given by Ichisada, I found Club Room #8. I knocked once, before pushing the door open.

It was a flurry of work in there.

According to that manual that Ichisada had given to me, there were five departments: Sports, Celebrity, Student News, Community, and the Editorials. There were about three members per department, two being field researchers, like me, and the third being the editor of that department.

So I would go to basketball practice and gather all this information, make it into a report, submit it to the sports editor, who would approve or deny it, and I would shape it into an article, which would go back to the sports editor and then on to the Editorials Department.

The Editorials Department was a bit different. There was the Head, Ichisada Hideaki, who organized all of the members, approved the final copy of the newspaper and attended school council meetings on our behalf. There was the Editor-in-Chief, who took each article and double-checked it, before formatting it into the actual newspaper. And then there was the Printer, who was the one who took the final copy of the newspaper after it had been approved by the Editor-In-Chief and then the Head, and took it to the printing shop downtown, which the school had a subscription to.

Because eight of the fifteen members were field researchers, there were only seven students in the room, but it changed nothing. The room looked like it had gone through a tornado, papers flying everywhere.

Ichisada was in the back right corner of the room, writing on a whiteboard and muttering to himself. It looked like he was adding up the costs for paper, but I wasn't sure.

"Ichisada-san." I called out, struggling to get through the mountains of paper. "I'm looking for the sports editor."

He glanced away from his sums for a moment, recognizing me. "You already finished your report, Kobayashi-san?"

"I finished during basketball practice."

He nodded once, concentration back on his math. "Just call for Kohi-san and she'll come running. She'll do anything to get away from editing Fuji-san's indoor soccer training reports."

I thanked him, backing towards the door again. "Kohi-san? I'm looking for Kohi-san."

A girl clambered out of a pile of papers that covered what had probably once been a desk., She ran a hand through her hair, trying to neat it, but it was in vain, as it remained to be a single messy tangle. Her bangs curved downwards like a 'V', keen blue eyes peeking out from underneath her fringe. Her hair only lightly dusted her shoulders, and I inwardly cringed.

I keep my hair pinned up or tied up all the time, because the feeling of hair touching the shoulders is horrifying.

"I'm being summoned?" her voice was odd, a thin accent underneath her Japanese. I couldn't place it, the distinction far too faint.

"I'm Kobayashi Rin." I introduced myself. "I'm working for the boys' basketball team articles."

The girl - Kohi, I assumed - grinned, displaying two rows of neat, white teeth. "Good catch. Fuji - she's the other sports' researcher - is assigned to the girls' soccer team. The thing is, her sister is on the team, and the kid is always gettin' hassled about writing an article about her. Rest in peace, Fuji."

"The boys' basketball team is fun, but the schedule is intense."

"You mean, the schedule is Rintense." Kohi looked incredibly proud of herself. "The basketball team obviously can't get enough of you."

I snorted. "I already heard something like that from Izuki-san. Except, I think he just said something about wanting to get Rinside of me."

"That's brilliant- Izuki Shun, right? That kid is like the rolemodel for everyone, everywhere." Kohi laughed, a sound that could be heard loud and clear through the ruckus of the club room. "I'm Kohi."

"You do realize your name means coffee, right?"

"Long story."

"I have time."

* * *

Kohi revealed to me her true story.

Her real name was 'Robinson Catherine', or 'Catherine Robinson', as they had done back at home. She had been a transfer student in the second grade, from Canada to Japan, and had been here ever since. Everyone had butchered her real name, so they called her 'Ko hi', which is the Japanese word for coffee.

"Why are you named for coffee though?"

"I'm coffee because I grind so fine."

"I just _met_ you."

"Also, I'll keep you up at 2 AM."

"I'm only a first year, Robinson-san."

"I'm so bitter unless you know how to use me."

"I really hope those are the only jokes you have for your name." I told her, my hopes for having a professional upperclassman diminishing.

"That's really it," Kohi shrugged. "And don't call me Robinson-san, that sounds weird as fuck. Not to mention, Kohi sounds way more Avatar: the Last Airbender."

"The pride you have in that fact is almost embarrassing."

"Key word in that sentence being _almost_, Rinny." Kohi chided, before clapping her hands together. "Wait, so what did you wanna show me?"

"Oh, I almost forgot..." I opened my folder, pulling out the report. "I finished the report. I have to get back to basketball practice, but can you have it back to me when you finish?"

"Yeah, I'll email you." she waved it off, tossing it onto the small stack of what I assumed were reports on her desk.

"You have my email already?

"Of course, I have your file."

"Thanks, Kohi-san."

"Let's keep it at Kohi."

"Of course, Kohi."

* * *

Thanks to my surprisingly long meeting with my editor, I got back to basketball practice as the practice match was ending.

"Sorry for being absent for so long, Riko-san," I apologized, tucking my folder into my bag. "I met with my editor for the first time and we were talking about, uhh, emailing and correspondence."

She smiled weakly at me. "No problem, Rin-san. The second-years actually lost, thanks to a combination of Kagami-kun and Kuroko-kun, and they're just running drills right now, led by Hyuga-kun."

"Oh, Kuroko-san finally displayed his true skills?" I beamed at her. I had known that he wasn't just going to be some knock off who claimed to be from some fancy-dancy Generation of Miracles. "What was his specialization?"

Riko glanced at me, before turning back to face the drills. "I'll... I'll explain it to you tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, I'm going to need you to show up to school fifteen minutes early."

"Oh, why?"

"Don't worry... you'll find out."

* * *

To: rinrinforthewin

From: swagcoffee42069666

_Rinny,_

_its me kohi_

_i finished editing your report and its attached to this email_

_also heres my phone # so u can hmu whenever_

_ur really doing good w/ the basketbal team_

_glad they like u_

_- kohi_

* * *

**Yes, I'm back, and yes, it's with a Kuroko no Basuke story. I was expecting to go to Bleach, but then I was suddenly inspired by this idea that I immediately had to put into action.**

**So yeah, I'm in KnB right now.**

**I'm hoping to do a chapter per episode, so you can tell where and when the story is going next, regardless, alright?**

**This was like 7000 words, i am broken inside**

**Leave a review, im working hard guys**

* * *

**question:**

**who is ur favorite generation of miracles person**

* * *

**Leave a review**

**please**

**seriously otherwise this was a big waste of time**

**pce**

**LeoInuyuka**


	2. I Gain a Rival

Chapter 2

I Gain a Rival

* * *

**Reviewer Quote:**

**i literally just scanned the entire chapter for kohi  
****truth of the kohi  
****- confusedwithacock**

* * *

To: swagcoffee42069666

From: rinrinforthewin

_Kohi-san,_

_I forgot, you don't like having the '-san' at the end of your name._

_Kohi,_

_Thank you for going over the report, but I noticed that nothing was changed. I'm going to take this as a 'You are a brilliant writer and your ideas are so amazing that I don't even have to change' them._

_Aww, thanks!_

_I'm hoping to have the article done by the meeting this afternoon. However, the meeting is actually during basketball practice, so I will be running a bit late to it, if you don't mind._

_Thank you so much,_

_Kobayashi Rin_

* * *

The third day of school, I actually had to get to school on my own means, since my mom wasn't willing to drive me.

So I had to take the train.

Let me give you a tidbit of information about me now: I hate the train.

So many people crushed together in a small area, that small number of inconsiderate people who are eating - it's absolutely disgusting. Not to mention, there's always that one person who tries to start up conversation, and no, we do not want to speak with you, please leave us _alone_.

Unfortunately, on the third day of school, I was that person.

I was sitting beside a girl with pink hair - odd on it's own, but I wasn't placed on this earth to judge others - who wore a different uniform than the Seirin one.

You see, the only reason that I actually started conversation was because we accidentally made eye contact and once you've done that, there's really no going back.

"...nice weather we're having." I offered up for a first-liner, before immediately mentally stabbing myself in the chest. I wasn't very, umm, socially talented.

The girl, bless her soul, didn't give me an odd look, only smiling back politely. "Yes, it's been a nice warm spring, unlike last year. It was way too hot then."

"What school are you attending?" I asked, shifting my bag so that it sat more comfortably on my lap. I had been so lucky to actually get a seat, instead of having to stand up on the train. When I do stand up and the train comes to an abrupt stop, I crash into other people and it's not very pretty.

She blinked - she probably hadn't expected me to carry on conversation, but I was trying out this whole 'socializing' thing, so she was a bit too unfortunate to be my test monkey. "I'm attending Too Academy." she turned to jab her neighbor on the other side, a tall man who looked half-asleep. "So is Aomine-kun, right?"

I paused, looking fully at her neighbor, realizing that no, he was not a man, and yes, the full power of his sharp glare had been directed to yours truly.

He gave a noncommittal grunt, probably trying to slip back into unconsciousness.

"I'm attending Seirin High School right now," I said, trying to ignore the way that Pink's eyes lit up and 'Aomine-kun' opened a single eye. "I'm only a first-year, but I've already started to like it."

"Oh?" Aomine-kun turned to look at me, his full attention concentrated upon my person and it felt more than uncomfortable. "You're attending Seirin, huh? How's their basketball team?"

Pink made a face at him. "Aomine-kun, she's not going to know all about their basketball team! It's only Seirin's third day-"

"Actually, I'm the school news reporter assigned to write all about the basketball team," I corrected her, politely. I felt a little awkward, since they looked like they were about to get into all-out bickering. "I've been sitting in on the tryouts so far and-"

"Wait, so you've been at both of the tryouts?" Pink asked for confirmation, looking as if energy had revitalized her. "So you've seen all of the incoming first-years?"

"Umm, yes-"

"Then you've seen Tetsu-kun, right?" suddenly we weren't on a train anymore. It was like something out of a romance story - sparkles started shooting out of nowhere, her eyes were glowing and a faint pink blush had settled over her face.

"...who?"

"Kuroko Tetsuya." Aomine-kun reiterated for her. "Short. Blue hair. Doesn't talk much."

"Oh, Kuroko-san." I laughed at his description. They must have been good friends during middle school. "Yes, he was definitely at tryouts."

"So I'll be seeing him on the court, huh?" Aomine-kun, having received the information he had wanted, reclined against the back of the chair. "Hn. Too bad he's weak."

"Tetsu-kun is not weak!" Pink smacked him on the arm, before turning to smile at me. "I'm Momoi Satsuki and that's Aomine Daiki. He's kind of a big jerk, but you'll get used to it."

I bowed slightly. "I'm Kobayashi Rin. It's a pleasure to meet you, Momoi-san, Aomine-san."

"Oh, you call me Satsuki." Momoi Satsuki said, brushing her hair aside. "We're going to be best friends now, since any friend of Tetsu-kun's is a friend of mine."

I leaned backwards, feeling sort of uncomfortable with this sudden proclamation of friendship. I mean, basing a friendship off a different friendship is sort of unreliable. "Umm, Kuroko-san and I wouldn't necessarily be friends... I mean, I just met him two days ago-"

"Are you saying that Tetsu-kun and you are, dare I say it, _more_ than friends?" Satsuki wondered, her expression darkening. "That certainly _could not_ be the case, right?"

I stared. _Talk about a 180 degree personality switch._

"RIGHT?!"

"Yes, ma'am!" I adopted a military salute. This girl's personality had changed to one reminding me suspiciously of my aunt, Heishi. "Kuroko-san and I have a strictly acquaintance relationship!"

"Good," she smiled, pleasantly once more. "Then on Monday, since tomorrow is the weekend, I will have a love letter prepared for him... will you deliver it?"

I hesitated and even Aomine Daiki looked slightly intimidated. "Just accept the damn deal..." he hissed at me.

"Of course I will deliver it for you, Satsuki-san!"

"Oh, you can call me 'Satsuki' or 'Satsuki-chan', because we're going to be such good friends from now on, right?" she looked absolutely pleased with her discovery of me and my slight acquaintance to Kuroko.

"Yes, Satsuki." I felt like a sheep that was mindlessly listening to their herder. I was simply that intimidated by the seemingly-kind girl.

The train slowly rolled to a stop, and an announcement came on. "Seirin Station. Please make your way to the doors in a safe and orderly fashion."

"This is my stop, Satsuki, Aomine-san." I bowed slightly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You too, Kobayashi-chan. Give Tetsu-kun my love." Satsuki waved at me as I did my best not to run for the exit.

* * *

"...you scared the shit outta her, Satsuki."

"She just has to know that Tetsu-kun is _mine_. Then we can be friends."

"...you're scarin' the shit outta me, Satsuki."

"Hush, Dai-chan."

* * *

Just as I stepped off of the train, I realized something.

If Kuroko and Aomine had been on the same basketball team in middle school, back at Teiko, that would mean...!

I turned back, the doors closing behind me, just to see Aomine and Satsuki get into bickering.

That boy was one of the Generation of Miracles.

As the train sped off in the opposite direction, I tried my best to add up what sort of player he would be, based on his height, weight, personality, movement and attitude.

I swallowed once, tugging out my composition book from my bag.

_Aomine Daiki - attending Too Academy, but a previous member of Teiko Middle School's Generation of Miracles_

_Aomine Daiki would crush Seirin as it is now_

_Aomine is dangerous_

* * *

I arrived fifteen minutes early to school, just like Riko had asked me to. I waited in the gym for five minutes before she showed up.

"I'm sorry for being late!" she called, running over, her arms full of papers. "I was just wanting to talk to you about Kuroko-kun's specialization."

I nodded. "Want to go to the cafeteria? I didn't grab breakfast this morning."

"Sure."

* * *

"So he literally uses his lack of presence as an ability?" I drawled, sipping strawberry milk through a straw.

The cafeteria was practically empty, a few stragglers rushing in to grab a quick bite to eat before classes started. None of them payed us any heed however, leaving Riko and I to chat idly.

"His shooting and dribbling abilities are average, but his _passing..._!" Riko sounded like she was going to pass out from happiness. "It's absolutely wonderful."

"Yesterday, Kuroko-san wasn't exactly quick on his feet at running, so I'm going to go ahead and make an assumption that he is incredibly dexterous, or handy with his, umm, hands, if you ignore the possible innuendo."_  
_

She nodded. "It's actually really fantastic, the way that he uses it. ...the Generation of Miracles is really something."

I agreed. I had met Aomine Daiki and I sure as hell didn't want to meet anymore of them.

"But that's not all I wanted to talk to you about." Riko's expression switched from awe to something that can only be described as mischievious. "This Monday, at 8:40 AM, on the roof, we're going to be accepting players into the basketball team."

"I saw that on the schedule, when I was writing everything down in my agenda." I waved around said book, which was absolutely full of scribbles about basketball and newspaper club.

"However, the way that we'll be accepting players is a little different..."

"Explain."

And she did.

"It's slightly against the rules, since last year, we all got called out by the principal." she admitted, sheepishly. "And because you're not a member of the basketball club, and you're not going to be an official member of the basketball club, I thought that I should warn you about it, and that you wouldn't have to participate or show up, if you didn't want to."

"Oh, but that sounds like so much fun!" I was laughing, the idea of it was absolutely hilarious. "There's no way I'm not participating. Maybe I can be inducted as like a special member of the basketball club or something."

She smiled, clearly pleased with my answer. "I was thinking something about that as well, because then the basketball club can take you out of school earlier for games, or you can be excused from school for training camps and trips."

"I can ask Ichisada-san about it, he's the president of the newspaper club." Fuji, the other sports reporter, had some sort of membership like that as well, according to Kohi. "He can definitely get something arranged for it."

"I'll see you at practice today, and on Monday at 8:40." she reminded me, before adding, "And don't tell the others. This is our secret tradition!"

"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

At practice, I worked on my article. I had gone through like four drafts, each of them sounding worse by the moment.

The boys were now discussing strategy and positioning, the second-year player going to instruct the first-year player of the same positioning. The numbers had definitely dwindled, the small crowd that had been there on the first day now only a handful.

Takeda-sensei was absent, so I took his chair. Let me just say, it was a bit more comfortable than sitting on the floor.

There was a bunch of things that I wanted to mention in the article, but I wasn't sure how to tie them all together. I wanted to mention Riko and how amazing it was that she was only a second-year, but still such a wonderful coach, but I also wanted to talk about Kagami and Kuroko and how much potential they had, but I also wanted to go on forever about the greatness of the current second-years and how they had gotten so far last year as a rookie team.

_"Seirin's basketball team is back this year, led by impressive second-year coach, Aida Riko, as she begins tryouts for what will hopefully be the team that leads Seirin High to victory in both the Interhigh and Winter Cup tournaments."_

The newspaper club meeting started ten minutes ago. But basketball practice was ending in fifteen minutes, so I was hoping that running a bit late wouldn't kill anyone. I had also mentioned my expected tardiness in my email to Kohi - her email was swagcoffee42069666 and I couldn't stop laughing - so she would know where I was.

_"Despite last year's impressive display at the Interhigh tournament, where Seirin surpassed all expectations and made it into the final league of the Interhigh, where they ultimately suffered defeat at the hands of 'The Three Kings of Tokyo', or Shutoko, Senshinkan and Seiho High Schools, Seirin's first-years are expected to provide much to this year's team."_

I wasn't sure how much room I would be given in the column, but Kohi would know what to cut out and what to keep in.

_"A couple of first-years with particular potential include Kagami Taiga, who recently returned from America, and Kuroko Tetsuya, a previous member of Teiko Middle School's infamous Generation of Miracles."_

I had managed to mention everything I wanted to, but conclusions had always been my weakness.

_"High expectations are held for everyone and with both luck and talent on our side, Seirin will have victories for both tournaments by next year."_

"That's it for practice everyone!" Riko announced, knocking me out of my writing-spree. "If you want a membership form, please come find me tomorrow during classes... there is no practice tomorrow!"

I shut my laptop quickly - the damned thing was all but falling apart at the hinges, held together by duct-tape - stuffing everything into my bag. "I'm going to the newspaper club, bye everyone!"

A chorus of "Bye Reporter-san!" floated out the door after me as I rushed down the door, only tripping once on the threshold.

Yeah, I hadn't been able to shake that nickname, thank you for nothing, Tsuchida.

* * *

"I'm sorry I'm late!" I all but threw open the door, rushing into the room. "Basketball practice held me up and-"

I decided to look up at that moment and all I could see was the dark gaze of Ichisada. "Kobayashi-san, it is all right if you are held up by your field research duties." he excused, but his eyes narrowed. "However, do not disrupt a meeting with your impudence."

"Uhh, yeah, I'll try not to do that again, Ichisada-san."

"Take a seat, near Kohi-san." he told me, gesturing me over towards my editor, who was draped over a desk chair, a chocolate bar in her hand.

"Yo, Rin." she half-saluted me with her chocolate bar.

I greeted her quietly, my face red from the scolding from Ichisada. "Hi, Kohi- what are you eating?"

Ichisada shh-ed me.

I nodded at him once, trying to pronounce the name on her chocolate bar. I assumed it was some sort of Canadian chocolate, since it was one I had never seen before. It was written in English letters, "Oh Henry!".

"Owe heh-no-ree." I muttered quietly, my poor English skills not helping me in the least. "Owe heh-nah-ree. Owe heh-no-rei."

Kohi stifled a snort. "It's an 'Oh Henry!'."

"Owe heh-nah-rei."

"You are so wrong, it's not even funny-"

"Kohi-san, please listen to what Ichisada-san is saying." the girl on her other side told her quietly, someone I assumed was 'Fuji', the soccer field reporter.

Kohi gave her a lazy look, and responded kindly with the middle finger.

Fuji didn't even blink. "Kohi-san."

She yawned in response.

I shook my head at my editor, facing Ichisada. He was welcoming the first-years to the newspaper club, telling them about what sorts of things are discussed at the meetings.

"There is one meeting per week, always on the Friday, unless it is a holiday. If the Friday is a holiday, then it will be on a Thursday, or the last day of the week before break." he said, adjusting his glasses slightly. "Newspapers are printed on Saturdays and are to be passed out on Mondays before school for 150 yen. There is a schedule of which department is going to pass out newspapers on the door."

I smiled to myself. I already hate the schedule scribbled into my agenda, since Ichisada had given it to me on the day of club recruitment.

"Oh, Kohi." I almost forgot. I pulled out a sheet of paper from a folder, passing it to her. "This is the finished article."

"Okey-dokey." she nodded. "I'll read it over and it'll go off to the ol' bitch of an Editor-in-Chief and then it'll zoom off into the newspaper."

I smiled, weakly, focusing back on Ichisada. Newspaper club meetings were really boring...

"Oi." Kohi jabbed me in the side, waving the Owe Heh-nah-rei in my face. "Want a bite? It's not Japanese, so you've never had it before."

I blinked. "Does it have nuts in it? I just hate nuts."

Kohi hesitated for a second. "...no."

"Then sure." I leaned forward, taking a bite. I thought for a moment, crunching through the fudge, ooh, was that caramel? and... "Wow, it's really crunchy." I swallowed.

Kohi waited for my reaction. "How was it?"

"I really liked it, but I wonder what made it crunchy-" I was cut off when I felt my throat close up. "...Kohi, was there actually nuts in it?"

She blinked. "Yeah, even though are nuts in it, I thought you'd like it because Oh Henry!s are just so good."

The world was darkening.

"I'm allergic to nuts."

And I think that was when I passed out.

* * *

THUD.

"Oh Henry."

"Kobayashi-san! Kohi-san, what's wrong with Kobayashi-san?"

"I accidentally poisoned her with peanuts."

"She's allergic! Didn't you read her file?"

"I did! I just didn't memorize every detail, unlike you!"

"Fuji-san, call the ambulance!"

"Yes, sir."

"I really hope she doesn't sue me for lying."

"Kohi-san, I really don't think this is the time."

* * *

I awoke on Saturday afternoon, in the Tokyo International Hospital. Upon my awakening, a whole bunch of machines started beeping, so I kind of sat there alone for a moment, before a nurse rushed in.

"Oh, it's a good thing you're awake." she said, a smile growing on her face. "We just had to monitor you, to make sure that the food passed through your system properly. A young girl came by earlier, leaving you a bunch of gifts. However, most of them were confiscated, because they contained nuts."

I laughed. I was willing to bet anything that it was Kohi. "At least I have visitors."

"Her name was something in English, so I can't pronounce it, but she called herself 'Kohi'."

Called it.

"She also left a letter for you, which is sitting on your bedside table." the nurse said, checking the machines. "I'll go get you some food, you must be famished. Once you eat, I'll have you checked out, since your mother is in the other room, and then you're free to go."

"Thank you."

"Oh, of course."

* * *

_"Dear Rinny,_

_Sorry for accidentally poisoning you with peanuts. __But you liked the Oh Henry! anyways, so I think I have done a good thing._

_Also, I didn't draw on your face when I was in here, so that is also a positive point for me._

_Ichisada came with me, though, to make sure that I didn't like poison you while you were down or anything, but I think that was a cover-up to hang out with me because I'm so rad._

_Don't sue me,_

_Kohi"_

* * *

Satsuki gave me her love letter on the train. "Tell Tetsu-kun I love him, alright?"

"You really don't have to do this, you know that?" Aomine suddenly said, the first words he had said to me since pressuring me _into_ sending the letters.

Wow, this guy goes from supporting Satsuki to not supporting Satsuki.

Her expression turned sad. "Kobayashi-chan, if you don't want to send these letters to Tetsu-kun, I understand-"

"Satsuki obviously misses Kuroko-san, Aomine-san." I said, simply. "Who am I to separate Satsuki from her one true love?"

Aomine rolled his eyes as Satsuki hugged me tightly. "Finally!" she exclaimed, clinging to me painfully tightly. "Someone who understands my feelings! Kobayashi-chan, if you ever need any support in the field of love, you just call, alright?" she thrust her phone in my direction, urging me to put in my phone number.

"Yes, yes, Satsuki." I dug my phone out of my pocket, offering my phone. I punched my name in as 'Rin', indirectly giving her permission to use my first name.

The announcement came, just as I got my phone back. "Seirin Station. Please make your way-"

"I'll see you later, Satsuki, Aomine-san." I saluted Aomine, who shook his head at me, and smiled at Satsuki, all but skipping out the door.

I had three friends at Seirin - Riko, Kagami and Kohi - and two friends from Too Academy - Satsuki and Aomine-san (sort of).

A small smile grew on my face and stayed there the entire day.

* * *

"I like her." Satsuki announced, as the door shut behind the other girl, Seirin Station becoming a blur as the train zoomed away.

"I dunno," Aomine shrugged, looking out the window. "It's weird for someone to talk to us."

"She was just being polite on the first day," Satsuki reasoned, playing with the strap of her bag. "and I guess she liked us enough to stay. Look at how cool we are, Dai-chan!"

"She said she was the news reporter for the Seirin basketball team." Aomine pointed out, trying to argue against her. "Maybe she's just gatherin' information for their team."

Satsuki scowled at him. "We haven't talked about basketball at all!"

"She might be like you." Aomine countered, simply. Satsuki recoiled at the suggestion. "She could know all about me and how I play already, Satsuki-"

"Tetsu-kun is on the Seirin team, though," Satsuki shook her head. "He knows all about you, so they already have all that information."

"Satsuki, she isn't-"

"Aomine, please just let me have one friend that's _not_ you." Satsuki said, looking down at her lap. "Kobayashi-chan put her name in my phone as 'Rin'. She wants to be our friend and you're being mean. Let me have a friend, okay?"

Aomine shook his head once, redirecting his attention to the window. "Don't come cryin' when you're all upset then."

* * *

I arrived at 8:30 on the roof, where Riko was sitting on the floor. I had grabbed a copy of the week's newspaper on my way up - Kohi should have submitted my article to the Editor-in-Chief, so if everything had gone right, it should have been in there. I shoved the paper into my bag. "Are you ready?" she asked me.

I nodded, brushing my bangs out of the way, from where they were whipped around by the wind. "Yes."

"I heard you were in the hospital from Yasuko, in the newspaper club." she said, slightly concerned. At my look of confusion, she reiterated for me, "Yasuko is the editor of the Celebrity Gossip department."

"Oh, ew, Celebrity Gossip." I wrinkled my nose. "Oh, but I was only in the hospital because my editor poisoned me with peanuts, despite my allergy."

Riko looked alarmed, but I reassured her. "It's all fine, I don't blame her."

The first-years came through the door then, and she stood up quickly, brushing off her skirt. I joined the first-years, standing beside Kagami.

She chuckled at everyone's disheveled expressions, as they all looked rather uncomfortable. "I've been waiting for you."

"Are you stupid?" Kagami muttered under his breath, shaking his head.

"Is this a duel?" Kuroko wondered, eyeing Riko nervously.

I smiled at him, "Kuroko-san, Satsuki sends her love. Also an actual letter, but I accidentally left that in my locker, so I'll give that to you during practice after school, alright?"

He stared at me. "You know Momoi-san?"

"She rides my train," I nodded. "Along with this other guy named-"

"The morning assembly is in five minutes, can we get on with it?!" Kagami shouted, waving his form in the air. "Just take the damn form!"

"Before I accept your forms, I have something to tell you," Riko said, her arms folded smartly over her chest. "I made a promise when I accepted the position of coach last year from Hyuga-kun. I vowed to push the team in the direction of the national championship. If you can't handle that sort of pressure, there are other clubs better sorted to you."

"Like the newspaper club." I cut in. Might as well self-promo, right?

"Huh?" Kagami gave me a look. "Of course I'm joining the basketball-"

"I know you're strong, Kagami-kun," Riko interrupted, rolling her eyes. "But I need to be sure that you have something even more important than strength. No matter how hard a person can practice, words like 'someday' and 'maybe' aren't good enough."

I pulled out my composition book, scribbling down quotes for my next report, which would hopefully be on this tradition.

_"No matter how hard a person can practice, words like 'someday' and 'maybe' aren't good enough." - Aida Riko._

"State your year, class and name!" she was saying as I looked up, pointing to the assembly down below, where students were gathering. "Announce your goals here and now!"

_First-year students had to announce their year, class and name, along with their goals for the year to the entire morning assembly below_

"If you fail to complete your goal, you'll have to come up here-" a giant grin was plastered across her face. "-strip naked and confess your love to the girl-"

"-or guy, we don't discriminate." I chipped in.

"-you love." she finished, proudly.

The three first-years that weren't Kuroko and Kagami looked horribly panicked, but the others looked more calm. Kagami looked more annoyed than anything and Kuroko looked like he just wanted to go home.

"All of the second-years did it last year." Riko pointed out, as if defending the tradition.

The other first-years were muttering amongst themselves, expressing doubt.

"Should I go first, Riko-san?" I asked, peeking over the side of the railing.

"I am looking for something concrete and ambitious, so you're going to have to do better than 'I'll try my best' or 'I'll play in a game'." Riko said to them. "I'm not really sure where Rin-san is going to go with her's, but it should be equally ambitious, for something to do with her writing and the basketball club."

I opened my mouth to do mine, but Kagami cut me off. "This'll be easy." he shrugged, walking right past Riko and jumping onto the railing. "This isn't even a test."

I immediately went into a panic, shrieking at him to 'Get the hell down, Kagami!', but I was ignored completely.

"Class 1-B, number 5, Kagami Taiga!" he shouted, his voice carrying all the way down to the morning assembly. "I will defeat the Generation of Miracles, and become the best player in Japan!"

"Okay, Kagami, you've done your part, now _please_ get off the railing!" I ordered, yanking him down myself. In the back of my mind, I noted that he had barely hopped up there, his jump prowess more impressive than I had expected.

I scribbled down his words for a moment.

_Class 1-B, number 5, Kagami Taiga announced his intention to 'defeat the Generation of Miracles and become the best player in Japan._

"I'll, uhh, go next. But I'm not going to go up there like Kagami, because I'm not suicidal, okay?" I leaned over the railing. "Class 1-B, I don't think I have a number, Kobayashi Rin! I will write a piece so amazing this year that it breaks free from the sports section and is placed on the front page of the standard newspaper! Please take notice of this!"

I looked to Riko, in expectation. "Is that good enough?"

She gave a short nod. "It will do."

* * *

Down in the crowd, Ichisada shook his head. "That's not going to happen," he muttered to Kohi, who was standing to his right. "The sports news will always stay in the sports news section. It's not important enough to make it to the front page-"

Kohi jabbed him in the side. "Shut up."

Ichisada shot her a look, but nonetheless obliged.

"You gotta stop being mean to Rin-Rin, or she'll move away to Australia, come back, lose to you in a swimming competition, go back to Australia, come back and win against you in a swimming competition and swear that she'll never swim against you again." Kohi warned, completely serious.

Ichisada groaned - Kohi needed to learn how to stop. "First of all, I saw that anime-"

Kohi swore under her breath.

"-and second, I treat her like everyone else. You're just being insensitive." Ichisada scoffed. "You were never like this with Fuji-san. Favoritism amongst field researchers is frowned upon-"

"Fuji can actually take care of herself." Kohi snapped, annoyed. "Rin doesn't have many friends. I almost killed her when I offered her a chocolate bar- she's a walking disaster. Just cut down on the asshole-ishness of your personality."

Ichisada opened his mouth to speak, but Kohi cut him off. "I don't want to hear your shitty excuses, just grow up while you still can."

* * *

"Who's next?" Riko asked, looking to the four other basketball players. "If you don't hurry up, the teachers will get here."

"Excuse me?" one kid, the second shortest of the group (other than Riko and I), raised his hand. "Can I say I want a girlfriend?"

"What does that have to do with basketball?" I asked him, squinting through the morning sun.

"Yeah, rejected." Riko agreed. "What else do you have?"

A boy with a buzz-cut (it was definitely Connie Springer) volunteered next. "Class 1-A, Kawahara Koichi, from Chuo-ku, Tokyo." he was substantially quieter than Kagami and I. "I was a sickly kid, so I couldn't play sports. Things started to change for me when I was in kindergarten..."

I almost fell asleep.

"I'll never forget the all-star game I saw in the fifth grade. It was the first time I thought basketball was cool..."

Was he still talking?

"I joined the basketball team when I was in middle school, but I wasn't very good. I was always dragging my team down and I was miserable. But-"

Riko, apparently having heard more than enough, literally kicked him away from the railing. "Next!"

I scribbled down what he had said, quickly, before rushing to his side. "Are you alright, Kawahara-san?!"

_Class 1-A's Kawahara Koichi joins the basketball team because he doesn't want to drag down a team ever again. It is a point to prove not only to himself, but to his family, who supported him ever since he was a sickly child who couldn't participate in sports._

One of the boys hesistatingly raised his hand. It was the same kid as last time. "Uh, I want a girlfriend."

"I told you, no!" Riko was getting aggravated. The scene was getting dangerous.

The other boy sighed, moving up to the railing, his face slightly flushed from embarrassment. "Class 1-D, Fukuda Hiroshi! I like helping others, so when I heard my upperclassman asking for help, I immediately offered my assistance!"

I coughed into my hand. I was willing to bet that was Izuki's fault.

"My goal is to help this team win one of the tournaments!"

Riko nodded. "You!" she pointed at the kid who wanted a girlfriend. "You're next! And if you mention wanting a girlfriend, I will kick you off the building!"

I quickly wrote down Fukuda's information-

_Class 1-D's Fukuda Hiroshi, who simply wanted to offer his assistance second-year Izuki Shun, joins to help the Seirin basketball team win one of the tournaments._

"Class 1-D, Furihata Koki!" Girlfriend-Boy shouted, gripping the railing in an iron grip. "The girl I like said she would go out with me if I became the best at something! I joined the basketball team to become number one!"

I laughed, writing it down.

_Also from Class 1-D, Furihata Koki wants to get the girl of his dreams by becoming a basketball stud._

"If that's not good enough," he was saying to Riko, "then I will simply have to become number one in something else."

Riko offered a weak smile. "I guess that I'm moved. Who's next?"

"Excuse me." a voice piped up from beside me.

I shrieked, almost falling over the railing. "Kuroko-san, please stop doing that."

"I'm sorry." he apologized to me, before facing Riko. "I'm not good at speaking loudly, so may I use this?" he produced a megaphone out of nowhere.

"Why do you have that?" I wondered, but Kuroko simply glanced at me.

He marched up to the ledge, holding the megaphone up to his lips and prepared to speak, but a loud slam cut him off.

"You idiots!" a man who I assumed was some sort of faculty had thrown open the door. "The basketball team, again, huh?"

Riko swore. "And we were almost finished too!"

* * *

We all knelt in front of the man, who was giving us a thorough scolding.

"I warned you last year!" he was telling Riko, who simply scowled back at him. "Didn't you say that you'd never do this again? Shouldn't you know right from wrong at your age?"

"It was my idea, sir." I interrupted, looking up at the man. Riko nudged me, but I ignored it. "My name is Kobayashi Rin, from the newspaper club. I had heard about this idea from the second-years and I thought it would make for a fascinating article. After all, such daring traditions inspire school pride in not only the basketball team, but also in the morning assembly students."

The man raised an eyebrow. "It was still wrong to do and you all shall receive consequences."

"Please place the blame solely on me, sir. I was the one who pressured Aida-san and the other first-years." I blinked out a few tears. "My mother will be very, _very_ disappointed in me."

He suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Um, I suppose I can get rid of the consequences, _but_ only if you all promise never to do this again."

"We promise, sir." I nodded, solemnly.

"But you can still print your article, little girl," he said, turning to look at the morning assembly. "School pride is just what this school needs."

"Thank you very much, sir." I bowed, standing with the others. "We will go join the morning assembly. Have a good day."

We all rushed down the stairs, into the hallways.

Riko grinned at me, "Nice save, Rin-san. You sure played him."

"Thank you, Kobayashi-san." Kuroko put in, from behind me. I managed to suppress the surprised screech, but only barely.

"It was no problem, you guys." I grinned at them.

* * *

We rejoined the morning assembly, and as we exited the school to join them in the courtyard, we received thunderous applause.

I walked by Kohi - she tossed an 'Oh Henry!' at me, but I threw it back - on my way to join Class 1-B. I wondered, briefly, how Kuroko, who hadn't finished his announcement, would be inducted into the team.

I'd sort it out later.

* * *

Practice went as per usual.

It was good weather outside, so Riko and I got in the golf cart and we led the basketball team around the soccer fields.

The girls' soccer team was doing warm-up drills, so the boys were getting more than an eyeful. Riko kept them on track though, allowing me to drive while she hollered at the boys to stay focused.

I felt very honored.

I also gave Kuroko his love letter from Satsuki, which he sighed at, putting it in his bag after practice. "Tell Momoi-san thank you, Kobayashi-san."

"Oh, you can just call me Rin, Kuroko-san." I told him. "Satsuki is convinced that you and I are very close friends. It's hilarious. I don't think her friend likes me too much though."

Kuroko blinked. "Her friend? Momoi-san doesn't have any friends outside of the basketball team."

"Was she involved with the basketball team?" I asked, out of curiosity.

He nodded, once. "She was the manager."

"I get the feeling that he really didn't like me..." I bit my lip. "I was gathering serious hate vibes from that guy."

Kuroko suddenly looked uneasy. "Do you know his name, Rin-san?"

"Yeah, it's Aomine Daiki." I blinked. "Oh, you two were friends in middle school, weren't you?"

Kuroko looked away, shouldering his bag. "I suppose... I'll see you during class tomorrow, Rin-san."

He left quickly after that, leaving me to stand alone after him, wondering what I had said wrong.

* * *

Now, when I get on the train, I immedately went straight for Satsuki and Aomine. Something was different about that Tuesday. Normally, Aomine sits on one side of Satsuki, leaning against the wall of the train car. However, that day, Satsuki sat against the wall of the train car, Aomine on the other side of her.

So I sat beside Aomine.

"Good morning, Aomine-san, Satsuki." I greeted, politely, pulling my bag onto my lap. "How are you today?"

"I'm good, Rin-chan." Satsuki smiled, peering around Aomine's large frame. "How did Tetsu-kun-?"

"Did you give Tetsu the letter?" Aomine interrupted, turning dark eyes on me.

I blinked, startled. "Um, yes, I did. He said to tell you thank you, Satsuki."

"Did he read it in front of you?" she looked worried. "I do like you, Rin-chan, but it'd be _so_ embarrassing if you had to listen to Tetsu-kun swooning over my love letter."

Aomine snorted. "When will you get it through your thick skull, Satsuki? Tetsu doesn't like you. And he never will. So get over it before you make a bigger fool of yourself."

As he spoke, her face became increasingly red until it was darker than her hair. She stood up, slapped him, and stormed into the next car.

He scowled after her, folding his arms. He turned his now annoyed gaze on me. "I did that on purpose." he told me, and I swallowed. "I wanted to talk to you."

"Well, now you've got me." I raised my eyebrows as high as I possibly could. "Was it really necessary to be so mean to someone who looks like your only friend, Aomine-san? You could have asked-"

"Why are you here?" he asked, using his full height to his advantage. He cast a giant shadow over me, but I didn't waver.

"I'm on my way to school, you idiot." I rolled my eyes. "This is pointless-"

"Why are you talking to Satsuki?" he demanded, ignoring what I had said. "If you're spying for the Seirin team-"

"You think I'm a spy?" I blinked, staring at him, his unwavering expression. He honestly thought I was a spy. I tried to hold a straight face.

"Are you laughin' at me?" he narrowed his eyes at me. "What the fuck are you doin-"

"I'm not a spy!" I burst out laughing. This guy was nuts. My smile faded slightly. "You went and was a bitch to poor Satsuki just to accuse me of trying to get basketball information out of you?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Of course not, that's not what-"

"I would never do that. Satsuki is so sweet and kind and a little intimidating when she was getting me to give Kuroko-san his letter, but she's a real sweetheart, and I'm horrified that you did something like that. Not to mention, if you were on the same basketball team, then Kuroko-san probably already knows all about you, dumbass." I shook my head. "Aomine-san, that was very cruel."

"Tch." he looked pointedly away from me. "I don't need a weakling like you to tell me what I should and shouldn't do."

"Apparently you do." I sighed. "Go find Satsuki and explain to her why you just did what you did."

"What? I ain't gonna do whatever you tell me to-"

I was so done with Aomine's shit. Generation of Miracles or not, this guy was an absolute douchebag. "She's probably ultra-pissed about you, and it's better you get it over with sooner than later."

He got up despite his claim of never listening to me. "I ain't doin' this cuz ya said to, I'm doin' this cuz I want to."

I nodded. "Of course, Aomine-san. Goodbye, Aomine-san."

He disappeared into the next car, just as the train pulled into my station.

I shook my head after him, getting up and off of the train.

That boy needed some serious help.

* * *

I arrived at class at the same time as Kagami, who I greeted, before making my way to my seat. Everyone was crowded around the windows, and Kagami too, joined them.

I stood behind him, trying to see what the commotion was all about, but wow, my impossibly short height did me no favors. Finally, after I tried to jump to see over Kagami's shoulder, he shoved some kid out of the way and nudged me forward.

"We will be the best in Japan." I read outloud, smiling slightly. We both stood back and looked to the back of the room, where Kuroko, uninterested in the hullaballoo, continued reading a book, flipping the page.

I excused myself, making my way back to my seat near the door, digging out my composition book.

_"Class 1-B's very own Kuroko Tetsuya makes his intentions clear, as he writes the message 'WE WILL BE THE BEST IN JAPAN' in chalk into the courtyard's pavement, on Tuesday."_

I placed my composition book back on my desk, but as I did, a thick packet fell out. I scooped it off of the floor, opening it.

It was the school newspaper that I had picked up the morning before, but had forgotten with the whole 'shout out your goals' event that had happened immediately after.

I flipped to the very last page - the sports section was always on the back, searching for my article. I found it - tucked into the bottom right corner, in tiny print.

_"Basketball is Back!_

_By: Kobayashi Rin_

_Seirin's basketball team is back this season, led by exemplary second-year coach, Aida Riko, as she hosts tryouts for what will form the team that leads Seirin High to victory in both the Interhigh and Winter Cup tournaments. _

_Despite last year's impressive display at the Interhigh tournament, where Seirin surpassed all expectations and moved into the final league of the Interhigh, where they ultimately suffered defeat at the hands of 'The Three Kings of Tokyo', or Shutoko, Senshinkan and Seiho High Schools, Seirin's first-years are expected to provide much to this year's team._

_A couple of first-years with particular potential include Kagami Taiga, who recently returned from America, and Kuroko Tetsuya, a previous member of Teiko Middle School's infamous Generation of Miracles._

_High expectations are held for everyone and with both luck and talent on our side, Seirin will have victories for both tournaments by next year."_

A couple of words had been edited in the first paragraph, but nothing had been cut. I cheered - my first article had passed!

"Why are you so excited, Rin-san?"

My cheer turned into a scream as I launched myself out of my seat. "Can you _please_ make some sort of noise?"

Kuroko stood beside me, blinking innocently. "What are you talking about, Rin-san?"

"You're so quiet, it's weird..." I shook my head. "Anyways, my article was published in the school newspaper!"

He nodded, face blank. "I saw it yesterday. It was very good, and I am flattered that you included me in it with such high compliments."

"I just said you had particular potential." I shrugged. "After your first games, I'll start doing interviews and stuff, and we can really make you all shine!"

"It's disappointing that your nicely written article was printed in tiny letters and in the corner." he commented, unknowingly pointing out something that had hit me hard.

I rolled up the newspaper, sticking it into my bag. "I-I'm only a first-year, so obviously they're not going to print that largely. A-And it was just tryouts, not an actual game, unlike Fuji-san's article on the girls' soccer team, s-so there's also that too."

"You'll get it in there next time, Rin-san." he assured me, a straight-faced thumbs up. "Good luck."

"Thanks, Kuroko-san." I bowed slightly. "Class will be starting in a few minutes, so you should get back to your seat-" I started to tell him, but when I looked up, he was already long-gone.

* * *

When I showed up to the gymnasium for practice that day, Riko was missing.

I didn't ask Hyuga or Izuki about it, going to my seat beside Takeda-sensei, and pulled out my laptop.

The boys were doing another practice match, and everyone was in awe of Kagami - same old, same old.

Since my last article had been published, another report was due on Wednesday. Then I'd have to produce an article by Friday. That was the schedule that Kohi and I had decided upon, despite Ichisada's declaration of a report every other day.

And since it was Tuesday, my next report was due the next day.

**Article Topic: **_Goals and Traditions_

**Main Points:** _First-year students had to announce their year, class and name, along with their goals for the year to the entire morning assembly below. If they fail to complete this goal, then they must strip naked, return to the roof, and profess their feelings to the girl (or guy) they love._

_Class 1-B, number 5, Kagami Taiga announced his intention to 'defeat the Generation of Miracles and become the best player in Japan._

_Class 1-A's Kawahara Koichi joins the basketball team because he doesn't want to drag down a team ever again. It is a point to prove not only to himself, but to his family, who supported him ever since he was a sickly child who couldn't participate in sports._

_Class 1-D's Fukuda Hiroshi, who simply wanted to offer his assistance second-year Izuki Shun, joins to help the Seirin basketball team win one of the tournaments._

_Also from Class 1-D, Furihata Koki wants to get the girl of his dreams by becoming a basketball stud._

_Class 1-B's Kuroko Tetsuya makes his intentions clear, as he writes the message 'WE WILL BE THE BEST IN JAPAN' in chalk into the courtyard's pavement, on Tuesday._

_I also participated in this tradition, announcing that I would get an article on the front page of the standard newspaper._

I looked it over again and attached it to an email.

* * *

To: swagcoffee42069666

From: rinrinforthewin

_Kohi,_

_I have my report ready for Wednesday. Please email me back once you finish editing it._

_I have to get back to basketball practice - Riko-san just returned from wherever she was. Even I get yelled at, if I'm slacking, though she is significantly nicer to me than she is to Hyuga-san._

_Wish me luck,_

_Rin_

* * *

I shoved my laptop into my bag, clutching my composition book under my arm. "Sorry, I was sending an email to my editor-"

Riko, who had been discussing the next game with the team, gave me a look. "The same editor that poisoned you with nuts and hospitalized you?"

"She poisoned you with nuts?" Hyuga repeated, incredulously. "Why didn't anyone tell me? We could have all visited you in the hospital, Reporter-san."

"That sentence, right there? It just made me very uncomfortable." I scooted away from Hyuga, who rolled his eyes in response.

"I can't believe she poisoned you," Izuki said, in disbelief. "That's just... nuts."

Koga punched him.

"Please continue with the previous conversation, as if I had never interrupted." I apologized, moving to stand by Kuroko and Kagami, who raised an eyebrow.

"Someone poisoned you?"

"I'm allergic to nuts." I explained, briefly. "It might as well have been."

Kagami sighed at me. "Are you always so danger-prone?"

Just as I was about to answer - a furious no, I am not! - Riko said something that caught all of our attention. "-and this year, Kaijou got their hands on one of the Generation of Miracles, Kise Ryota."

"What?!" Furihata sounded horrified.

Fukuda looked equally surprised. "Him?! The Generation of Miracles?"

"Wow, that was fast." I muttered, scuffing my sneakers against the floor. "I didn't think we'd be up against one of those guys for a while."

In contradiction to everyone's horror-filled faces, a smile spread across Kagami's face.

Hyuga turned to face his team. "Apparently, Kise works as a model."

"Really?" Izuki was practically inspired. "That's amazing!"

Koga, on the other hand, looked like he was about to sink into an everlasting depression. "Good-looking _and _good at basketball? That's brutal."

"Rin-san," Izuki looked to me. "What do you know about Kise Ryota? You're a reporter, so you have to know all sorts of information about everyone?"

"Isn't he like that super tall purple-haired guy?" I squinted at Kuroko, who shook his head. "No? Yeah, then I have no idea."

"But he's a model," Koga pointed out. "Shouldn't girls be in on the know about this?"

"Excuse me, but do I look like the sort of person who has time for that?" I demanded, ready to stab him with my pen or smack him with my composition book. "I am a full-time worker. Between basketball and newspaper club, I can't even take a breath! So shut your mouth, Koga."

Izuki whistled. "Reporter-san takes a stand."

Just as I was about to kill them _both__, _a bunch of girls started filtering into the gym, whispering and giggling amongst themselves.

"What is happening?" I wondered aloud, as the gymnasium became lined with people of the female gender.

"I didn't mean for this to happen..." someone muttered, standing tall among a crowd of short girls. He smiled at a girl, signing her a quick autograph.

We made eye contact.

I stiffened. _People make me nervous.__  
_

"It's good to see you again." Kuroko said, suddenly appearing beside me.

For the record, I didn't scream, I jumped, knocking into Kagami, which probably gave me a bruise, but at least I didn't scream. I gave Kagami a smile and he snorted in response, which made me embarrassed to exist.

"Good to see you too!" the guy - tall with yellow-blonde hair, and a single earring - called back in response.

I relaxed slightly - if Kuroko knew him, then he couldn't be an entirely bad guy. Right?

"Kise Ryota." Hyuga muttered.

I was very confused. Are people allowed to interrupt practice?

"Really, I'm sorry." Blondie apologized, sheepishly. "I'll talk to you guys in five minutes, alright?" he continued signing autographs.

"Really, what just happened?" I looked to Izuki and Koga, but their eyes were trained on Blondie. "Okay, I am so confused right now."

* * *

It took the combined power of Blondie, Kagami, Riko, Hyuga and I to get all of the girls out of the gym. Which took a little bit longer than five minutes (more like twenty), but everyone ignored that.

(I didn't, for the record.)

Finally, Blondie shut the gym door with a final wave to his fans, and stood in front of us. "There."

Hyuga looked absolutely frazzled, his glasses askew. "W-What are you doing here?!"

"Junpei is causing me Jun-pain." I murmured to Izuki, who snickered, but silenced himself after a sharp look from Riko.

"When I heard our next opponent was Seirin," Blondie said, with a laugh. "I remembered Kurokocchi was here, so I thought I'd say hi." he walked towards us, stopping just in front of poor Kuroko. "We were best friends in middle school-"

Okay. I was getting more screwed up. Blondie was screwing me up. "There isn't a Kurokocchi in the basketball club. You're crazy."

"You mean, he's _nuts._" Izuki muttered, sending me in a wave of internal cackles.

Blondie blinked. "Kurokocchi is right here. What are you talking about?" he put his hand on poor little Kuroko's hair, ruffling it.

"You're crazy, that's Kuroko, not Kurokocchi. There isn't a -cchi. There is no Kurokocchi in the basketball club." I repeated.

Hyuga, Kagami and Koga all groaned, simultaneously.

"I'll explain it to her!" Izuki volunteered, before turning me around to face him eye-to-eye. He looked at me very seriously, his hands on my shoulders. "Rin-san... you are absolutely right, this guy is a _nut_-job, and he's convinced himself that Kuroko-kun is actually named Kurokocchi, we must flee-"

Hyuga punched him.

"It's a nickname." Hyuga explained, shortly, before facing Blondie again.

I stared at Kuroko, silently asking him if it was true.

He nodded.

I sighed. _And now I look like an idiot._

He nodded again.

My eye twitched in annoyance and I bowed stiffly to the tall blonde guy. "I apologize for the misunderstanding."

"It's alright!" Blondie excused, swinging an arm around Kuroko. "I mean, we _were_ best friends in middle school, so any friend of Kurokocchi's is a friend of mine!"

_Kuroko had gone to Teiko... so Blondie here went to Teiko. I'm going on a limb, but I'm gonna say that Blondie was on the basketball team._

My heart stopped.

_Generation of Miracles?_

There was no group I hated more than the Generation of Miracles. And my reasons were justified.

"We weren't any more friends than anyone else." Kuroko stated, plainly, unhooking Blondie's arm.

"You're so mean!" Blondie immediately sobbed, wiping at his tears with the sleeve of his coat.

I immediately lost interest - there was no way this guy could be a Generation of Miracles, he wasn't serious enough - and drew little basketballs into the margins of my notebook, shading them in lightly.

I was no artist, but they looked pretty good.

After I ran out of room on the page, I became discouraged and tuned back into the conversation. "-they bullied Kurokocchi and I for it all the time."

_That_ grabbed my interest. "Kuroko-san, you were bullied?" I was horrified. Bullying was a horrible, _horrible_ thing and I had lost someone to it. I had lost _him_ to it. "If this ever happens again, please let me know. I will sort them out - my sister was a Yankee in middle school so she's probably aching to let herself go again." I started getting a bit choked up, something that I would be embarrassed about later. "You should have told me."

"That never happened to me." Kuroko said, his voice sounding a little uncomfortable.

"EHH?!" Blondie sounded horrified. _He needs to get his facts right before getting me all worried. _"That only happened to me?!"

I sighed in relief - I had been so concerned for poor Kuroko, having to suffer through the horror of mankind's darkness - when out of nowhere, a basketball _came hurtling towards us._

Blondie's eyes narrowed and he held out a single hand, stopping the ball. He winced, but it had appeared effortless and instinctual, his arm coming up without hesitation. "Ow, what was that for?"

...okay, maybe the basketball wasn't hurtling towards us so quickly that it was going to be leaving dust in its path, but it was scary and I'm not fast enough to dodge.

Everyone looked towards the source of the act of violence, to see Kagami as the guilty criminal. "Kagami!" I scolded. "You almost killed me! I would have died!"

"It wouldn't have even hit you." he snarked back, before directing his attention on Blondie. "Sorry to interrupt your little reunion, but I doubt you came all this way just to greet us. Why don't you play with me a bit... _pretty boy_?"

"Kagami!" I shouted. I was just full of scoldings that day. "We do _not_ condone name-calling!"

"I dunno..." Blondie hesitated, but the intensity on Kagami's face only... _intensified_. "Okay, let's do it!"

"He gave in so easily." I muttered to Izuki, who nodded.

He froze, before grinning. "Kagami can be... Kaga-_mean_."

"This could be bad." Kuroko said - I jumped, not screeched, I am truly the queen of self-control - from behind me. "He learns plays as soon as he sees them and makes them his own."

I blinked, watching Blondie, mentally adding up his height, weight, personality, movement and style. "He's a copycat." I murmured, watching him replay a move that Kagami had done not even half an hour before. "His visual comprehensive skills are impressive - he must have a photographic memory if he can remember every single movement that Kagami made. If he can remember a move, muscle for muscle, from half an hour ago, that means he can probably remember every single move he's ever seen."

I continued my analysis. "He is literally a basketball player with limitless potential - he can watch any move and copy it. The only problem, however, is if he has the same - or better - physical prowess as the player he copied it from. For example, if he can't jump as high as Kagami, then he won't be able to copy the dunks."

Izuki stared at me. "I didn't understand a single word of that - you were talking way too fast."

"Oh, when I start making inferences based on previous information gathered through height, weight, personality, movement and style, I end up talking incredibly fast, so if you want to gather anything from my analysis, you have to listen carefully." I smiled brightly.

Kagami fell to the floor and I jumped, stricken out of conversation.

"Kagami, are you alright?" I cried, moving forward, but was stopped by Hyuga, who placed a hand on my shoulder. "What are you doing, Hyuga-san?! He just fell!"

Hyuga shook his head. "Wait."

"Kuroko-san, what are you doing?! Your friend is insane! He just bodyslammed poor Kagami to the ground!" I knew that wasn't the case, but I was concerned. One of my five friends in the entire universe just was all but killed.

...I overexaggerate when panicked.

"I don't know that person." came the serious reply. "To be honest, I think I might have underestimated him until just now. It's only been a few months since I last played with them, but the Generation of Miracles might have improved far more quickly than I had expected."

"Wait, what?" I blinked rapidly. _So this guy was a Generation of Miracles?_

Hyuga cuffed Izuki up the head. Izuki screeched like a banshee. "I understood why you hit me previously, but I didn't even say anything!"

"I can't hit her," Hyuga reasoned. "she's a first-year, a girl and tiny." Hyuga turned to face me with a strained smile. "Yes, he is a member of the Generation of Miracles. Where has your mind been for the past half-hour?"

"I zoned out for like most of it." I defended, picking at the corner of the cardboard cover of my composition book.

"That was really disappointing," Blondie-Generation-of-Miracles-Guy said, shaking his head."After that, I just can't leave now." he walked away from Kagami, still on the floor - _my poor friend _- and stood in front of us. "Give me Kurokocchi."

I gasped. "Kuroko-san _chose_ to come here! You can't force him to do anything he doesn't want to-"_  
_

Blondie-Generation-of-Miracles-Guy rolled his eyes at me. "You really should learn to stop talking."

I gaped at his words, but no one spoke in defense of me. I opened my mouth to teach him a fucking lesson or two, but Izuki pulled me back.

"Come join us." Blondie-GoM-Guy said to Kuroko, whose face was blissfully blank. "Let's play basketball together again. I seriously respect you, Kurokocchi. It's a waste of your talent to stay here. What do you think?"

"If he wanted to play basketball with swine like you," I snided, shaking Izuki off. "he would have visited the farms, pighead!"

Even Izuki wasn't impressed.

_Not my best work._

"I am honored to hear you say that-" Kuroko just went on to speak, like wow, Rin didn't totally just defend your honor even though you said nothing for mine. "-however, I must respectfully decline your offer." he bowed slightly.

I mentally cheered. _You tell him, Kuroko!_

Blondie-GoM-Guy immediately reacted. "That doesn't make any sense! Besides, this isn't like you! Winning was _everything!_ Why didn't you go to somewhere better?"

_Excuse you, but Seirin's Harry Potter club won first place in a trivia tournament last year, so you can take your definition of better and shove it up your ass, because there is absolutely nothing better than that._

"My thinking has changed since then." Kuroko said, his determination to defend Seirin's general honor never wavering. "More importantly, I made a promise to Kagami-kun. I told him we'd beat you, the Generation of Miracles."

Blondie-GoM-Guy scowled. "It's really unlike you to joke around like that."

Kuroko blinked. "It's really unlike you to insult girls like you did to Rin-san."

I practically glowed, mentally drawing hearts around Kuroko. _Kuroko Tetsuya: Honor Defender._

Kagami started to say something - probably offensive - so I took the chance to write down Blonde-GoM-Guy's information.

_Blonde Generation of Miracles has defeated Kagami in a one-on-one, and is, as his codename displays, a member of the Generation of Miracles, an elite group that Kuroko-san is also a part of_

_Blonde Generation of Miracles can copy every single move he has ever seen, if he has the same or better physical prowess as the demonstrator of the original move_

_Blonde Generation of Miracles is a copycat_

"I still have no sense of humor." Kuroko said to Blondie, bluntly. "I'm serious."

"I'm serious too!" I announced, placing my hands on my hips. "You, Blondie-san, are a complete asshole and I can't wait until Seirin kills you brutally in the practice match."

Finally, Blondie withdrew from our four-way standoff - Kagami, Kuroko, Blondie and I - and grabbed his coat from the floor. "I look forward to seeing you on the court."

"Thank you for stopping by, Kise-kun." Kuroko bowed slightly. "I will see you at the practice match."

"I'll see you there too." 'Kise-kun' met eyes with Kagami and I. "You two as well."

_Is this a bad shonen manga?!_

"Oh my god, do I have a rival?" I hissed to Izuki. "I'm not even on the team."

"You're a fan though." he pointed out. "Which makes this absolutely fan-tastic."

Hyuga didn't hesitate to punch him.

* * *

To: rinrinforthewin

From: swagcoffee42069666

_Rin-Rin!_

_ur report has been approved_

_sorry about poisoning u again_

_i guess u passing out was a little_

_nuts_

_-kohi_

* * *

To: swagcoffee42069666

From: rinrinforthewin

_Kohi,_

_It's alright._

_But the 'nuts' joke was already done like four-hundred times by Izuki-san._

_You're a bit late._

_-Rin_

* * *

**Oh my god, this chapter was so long, like 10,800 and I am amazed at how I am still conscious.**

**(It was definitely the girl scout cookies that kept me going)**

**15 reviews for first chapter? Brilliant**

**Thanks to everyone omg**

**also i have a poll on my profile that you might want to check out**

* * *

**QUESTION:**

**Do you like Kohi?**

* * *

**Leave a review**

**this was like 10,800 words, there better be a review**

**LeoInuyuka**


	3. My Prince Has Come

Chapter 3

My Prince Has Come

* * *

**Reviewer Quote:**

**kohi is swag-ler  
-confusedwithacock**

**Kohi sounds like a crazy person with a good heart. Hook her up with Izuki!  
- an anon lmao**

**Is it weird to say that I ship IchiKohi now? Somehow Ichi-san's tsundere character and Kohi's carefree attitude match. And I think their pairing name means 'First Coffee' or something like that.  
- Eien no Ajisai**

* * *

Everything was explained to me after Blondie left with a wave and a "Good luck at our match!". He was actually Kise Ryota, famous model and basketball player, the so-called 'Copycat' of the Generation of Miracles.

I felt like an idiot - I had made this guy my 'rival'? I would lose in looks, athletics and intelligence - this guy did have a photographic memory after all.

Seirin's showdown with Kaijou was scheduled the next Monday. We had a little under a week until we had to face off against the first of the Generation of Miracles.

And after Kagami's loss during the one-on-one, we really didn't stand a chance.

When I complained about this to Kohi, she tried to find the brightside of the situation. "At least you'll have a good topic for your next article."

That only made things worse. "Yeah, _'Seirin's Tragic Loss at the Hands of Kaijou's Best!', _it'll definitely be a kicking headline."

"Your sarcasm? Not wanted." she muttered, handing me a piece of paper. "Anyways, I liked the report- I saw you participating in that tradition and it riled up Ichisada real good."

"Why?" I scanned through the report - nothing had been changed, a large red stamp of approval the only mark made to the paper. "And why aren't you actually editing my reports?"

Kohi shrugged, leaning back on her chair. We were in the club room - I had excused myself from basketball practice, since nothing of interest had been happening. It was the same as always, a bunch of sweaty, smelly guys working out and Izuki making totally sick puns. "Ichisada doesn't like people. That's really it."

"Except for you," I rolled my eyes, tucking the paper into my composition book. "After all, he did go with you to the hospital to see me after I was 'accidentally' poisoned."

"Hey, I'm the exception because of my fucking sick personality. And your reports are fine-"

"More like you're too lazy to actually do any _real_ editing."

"I take offense."

"I... don't care."

"You're heartless."

"Guilty."

* * *

My article that week had been, as the report had displayed, on the tradition of declaring our goals from the roof of the school.

From what I had heard from Kohi - my man on the inside in the club room - the Editor-in-Chief hadn't liked the topic because we had eventually been reprimanded, and tried to cut it from the paper. Kohi, however, convinced her otherwise, since the principal had let us off the hook, with encouragement to write about it.

The Editor-in-Chief allowed it, though she did it scornfully - I had less room on the sports page than I had had the week before, when I saw the example copy before the meeting on Friday.

Fuji had told me to bring it up during the meeting, but I had left it. Kohi had shoved me onto thin ice with the Editor, and I wasn't willing to have my next article - even if it would probably be about Seirin's loss against Kaijou - cut from the newspaper because of past animosity between the two of us.

* * *

After the meeting, I lingered after, to speak with Ichisada.

He completely ignored me, busying himself with organizing papers and clearing off his desk.

I cleared my throat.

"I am aware of your presence, I was simply waiting for you to speak, Kobayashi-san." he said sharply, grabbing the same volume of Shingeki no Kyojin that I had seen him with the last time, taking a seat behind his desk. "I am making an assumption that it is reasonably important?"

"Umm, since the basketball game has a practice match tomorrow..." I stood in front of him uncomfortably - Kohi's words about him not liking anyone resounding in my head. "I need to be excused from afternoon classes."

"Your latest article." he said suddenly, eyes flickering up from the pages for a moment, causing me to flinch. "It mentioned that you were inducted through this traditional 'ceremony' - though I hesitate to refer to it in such a way - am I correct?"

I tried to swallow the lump in my throat, but my voice came out slightly croaky. "Yeah- I mean, yes, I was."

He gave a sharp nod. "When the announcement comes for the basketball team to be excused from classes, then you shall leave with them."

"I didn't fill out any paperwork-"

"Unimportant. Aida-san has input this information into your file already, Kobayashi-san." he turned the page, the sound of paper the only thing I could hear. "Kagami Taiga and Kuroko Tetsuya are in your class, correct?"

"Umm, yes?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Follow them. I was unaware that I would have to explain to you a set of step-by-step instructions."

"Yeah, then I'll just go-"

"Good choice, Kobayashi-san."

_Jeez,_ I thought, closing the door behind me, _that guy needs to chill._

* * *

The Monday of the big game, I invited Satsuki and Aomine - who had, eventually, reconciled, after Aomine had, though with difficulty, apologized to me for the sudden interrogation - to the practice match.

"Kuroko-san is going to be playing against Kise-_kun_." I spat the second name. "I need emotional support, having to deal with that guy."

Aomine smirked. "Don't we all?"

Satsuki, however, looked skeptical. "You say his name with such... dislike."

I made a face. "That's because I dislike him."

"That's the first time I've ever heard that about Kise!" Aomine threw back his head and laughed, attracting attention from everyone in the train compartment.

"Be quiet, Aomine!" Satsuki shushed him, cheeks flushed from the sudden attention. "You're causing a public disturbance!"

"Does it look like I care, Satsuki?"

I laughed - those two were constantly at each other's claws. "Are you two coming, or what?"

Satsuki's smile dropped slightly. "I'd love to go, but Coach Harasawa asked me to put together a report on the Generation of Miracles' teams."

Aomine grunted. "I just don't give a fuck."

"Wow, Aomine-san, you really know how to flatter a girl." I retorted, crossing my arms. "Fine, I'll go alone and probably get murdered when I do... thanks, you guys. Thanks for always being there, for a friend."

Satsuki and Aomine froze.

"F-Friend?" she repeated, stumbling over the word as if foreign to her.

I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. "I-I mean, if we're _not_ friends, that's... that's okay too." I wanted to shrink and squish myself into a ball. Satsuki had said that we could be friends, that first day on the train.

But now, her reaction was so strong...

I really didn't have any friends, did I?

Satsuki burst into tears.

I paled. _Is being my friend seriously that big of a deal?_ I moved to stand, shouldering my bag. "I'm sorry, I'll just go-"

"Are ya stupid?" Aomine accused, bluntly, stopping me.

"E-Excuse me?"

"Sit the fuck down." he ordered, reaching over Satsuki with his abnormally long limbs. "What this idiot is tryin' to say, is that she has no friends."

"S-Shut up, Aomine-kun." Satsuki sniffed, trying vainly to stop the flood of tears.

"Other than me, of course." he said, as an afterthought. "So when ya said that, she got overemotional. Again."

Satsuki rubbed at her face, wiping the tears onto her sleeve. She smiled at me, the tears spilling over again. "Of course we're friends, Rin-chan!"

It was embarrassingly dramatic, but we hugged. Everyone on the train started applauding like we were some sort of drama.

"Get some fucking lives, ya asses!" Aomine barked at them, immediately redirecting their attention to something else.

I could only laugh.

* * *

Kaijou was huge. The main walkway was lonesome, students having left for home. The surrounding buildings towered over our group, casting intimidating shadows that made me slightly nervous.

_This isn't a campus, this is a small city!_

I was inspecting a girl's uniform from a distance - it was very different from the blue sailor uniforms of Seirin. One girl caught my eye and waved brightly. I flushed, moving closer to the team.

"I gotta agree with you on that one, Rin-san." Hyuga was leading the group through the campus, though everyone was fairly sure that he had no idea where he was going.

I turned pink. I didn't know I had spoke aloud.

"This place is huge!" he continued, the afternoon sunlight glinting off of his glasses. "You can really tell when a school is dedicated to it's athletics."

I nodded, though he couldn't see me. We had walked past the soccer and tennis fields, the players already starting on their afternoon practice.

And it had been intense.

When I had been at Inku Middle School, I had done reports on sports other than basketball, as Head of the Sports Section. Our soccer and tennis teams had both been impressive, but it was nothing in comparison to the spectacle I had glimpsed at Kaijou.

I shook my head - I had to _focus!_ Kuroko, Kagami and the second-years were going all-out in this game, which left me with the pressure of writing a brilliant article for their first match with another school, even if it was unofficial!

As I walked, I pulled out my composition book and tried to write as I walked. My handwriting was a little wonky, but I could get the gist of it.

_Kaijou's focus on athletics is much more prominent than Seirin's. Things aren't looking good._

"Hey guys!" came the shout from in front of us. I squinted forward and managed to make out the distant figure of Kise Ryota, my eternal rival.

I narrowed my eyes.

Kagami, however, seemed much more excited. "Kise!"

Kise jogged to a stop in front of us, grinning at our group. "This place is big-" _more like fucking huge._ "-so I thought I'd come get you."

I scoffed, looking pointedly away. Kise did the same, brushing Kagami aside as he moved to greet Kuroko. "Kurokocchi-" _stupid._ "-ever since you turned me down, I've been crying into my pillow every night!"

I held my tongue. _Is this guy for real?!_

"What's wrong with him?" Hyuga wondered aloud, eyebrows furrowed as if his increased concentration would help him understand the anomaly that is Kise Ryota.

"I dunno," I hissed back, shifting my weight slightly. "but if all the Generation of Miracles are like this, I'm resigning now."

"Just show us the way." Kagami deadpanned, watching Kise's antics with a speck of annoyance.

"-not even a girl has turned me down before!" Kise fretted, completely ignoring us.

Kagami stared. "...are you ignoring me?"

As Kuroko started to beat into Kise with his straight-forward words, Koga bumped me. "You were a lot chattier last time Kise was around. What's the deal, Kobayashi?"

I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest, clutching the composition book tightly. "When I get incredibly irritated, I kind of become a motor-mouth."

Izuki laughed. "Oh really? That's an underexaggeration. If I recall correctly, you were _Rin_-able to shut your trap-"

Hyuga beat me to the punch. Literally. "If you don't stop making jokes, you'll be benched!"

* * *

Kise showed us to the gym. I was in awe - the windows were gleaming, the floor looked so clean that I could eat off of it, and the basketballs were fresh and orange. "This is it." he waved a hand at the gigantic room, as if it wasn't the most beautiful gym he had ever seen._  
_

There was just one problem.

"We're playing on half a court?" Riko looked as us in disbelief. She hesitantly walked out onto the tiny court, looking almost offended. "The other side is being used for... practice."_  
_

A round man with short, dark stubble around his mouth looked up from his clipboard, from where he had been observing the practice. "Oh, you're here. Welcome. I'm Coach Takeuchi...?" he trailed off, looking over our team, a ragtag group of second-years, first-years, an invisible boy, a boy so tall he didn't even look like a boy, and two girls. "Which one of you is supposed to be the coach?"

Imagine how surprised the other man was when the slightly taller of the two girls stepped forward, a weak smile on her face. "Oh, that's me."

"You?" his face wrinkled in dissatisfaction. "Aren't you the manager?"

Riko's face twisted for a moment, before it cleared, a fake smile dazzling it's way across her face, as she sunk into a deep bow. "I'm Coach Aida Riko. We're looking forward to play with you today!"

"If she was the manager," I mumbled, scuffing my shoe against the floor. "then what am I supposed to be?"

Izuki thought for a moment. "Maybe you were supposed to be the _Rin_structor."

"It's official, I'm quitting the Seirin team and moving to Rakuzan Academy."

"Reporter-san!"

"I thought I said not to call me that!"

* * *

Riko smacked Izuki and I on the head - "Stop fighting! You're making me look like an idiot!" - before whipping back around to face Takeuchi with the same plastic smile. "So... what's going on here?"

"Exactly what it looks like." Takeuchi shoved his clipboard under his armpit, gesturing to the Seirin team. "We've only made simple arrangements for today's game."

"Arrangements?" Riko repeated, looking like the words pained to say.

I twitched. _That's so rude!_

Takeuchi shrugged, not realizing how much his words ticked us off. "There won't be enough to learn from this game to make it worth watching for the second-string and third-string."

"I-I see." her grip tightened on her bag's strap.

"So we're just going to have practice as usual so as not to waste time." Takeuchi dismissed, pulling out his clipboard. "Despite this, you'll still be playing our regulars. I hope you won't let us triple your score."

Riko was trembling, her right eye twitching in fury. It was like a demon incarnate - I could practically see the flames of fury around her.

My eyes flickered from her to the boys in the back, all dressed in blue shorts and jerseys. My breath caught.

There, not even twenty feet away from me, _was my destiny_.

A boy, with a bright white '4' stamped on his jersey, was stretching out his arms, eyes closed in concentration.

My mouth watered.

As if he realized I was watching, his eyes blinked open, revealing irises of steel blue.

I whirled around, but after a moment, peeked over my shoulder.

He glanced around, uncertainly, before shrugging and returning to his stretching.

I sighed, dreamily, before getting interrupted from my daydreams by a tap on the shoulder. I spun around to see Izuki grinning at me, looking as if he had won the lottery.

"Enjoying the view?" he asked, clearly basking in my tomato-red embarrassment. "Oh, yes, you are."

"Shut _up_, Izuki-san!" I screeched, tackling him against the floor. How _dare_ he make fun of me?

Hyuga hauled me off of him, though I was still kicking up a storm. "Calm down, Reporter-san!"

I snarled at him, surprising him so much that he dropped me on my ass. "Don't you _ever_ tell me to calm down, Hyuga Junpei!"

* * *

"It's like Hyuga's clutch time personality." Koga murmured to Mitobe, who shuddered.

_Not another one!_

* * *

I was placed into time-out by Riko, meaning that I had to sit on the bench while the adults talked business. I couldn't hear anything from where I sat, but I could tell that our team was getting really pissed at something Takeuchi was saying.

No surprise. That guy was a downright asshole, underestimating us, and doing it in such a rude, blatant manner.

After a short conversation, they started filtering into locker room, leaving me the only Seirin representative among a throng of Kaijou.

One of the regulars - not my Prince, however - waved curiously at me from across the court.

I stared. _Weirdo._

He jogged over, flashing a grin. "Hello, princess. What's your name?"

_Is this a bad episode of Ouran High School Host Club?_ I wondered briefly, but answered anyway. "Kobayashi Rin. It's nice to meet you."

He sunk down onto the bench beside me, casting a sideways wink. _This is too cheesy!_ "No, my dear, the pleasure is _all _mine." he suddenly grasped my hand and planted a wet slobbery kiss onto it.

I shrunk away, my disgust clear on my face. "Yeah."

"Oh!" he suddenly exclaimed, touching his hand to his cheek, as if realizing something. "I never introduced myself! I'm Moriyama Yoshitaka... but you can call me Yoshi-kun."

"I'd rather not." I told him, truthfully, wrenching my hand out of his grasp. He was definitely pretty, but his personality was _too_ straightforward.

He nodded, face solemn. "I'm moving too fast, aren't I?" he bowed his head for a moment, but that didn't keep him down for long. "I'll win this game for you, my dear, and then we can get to know each other better."

"Please don't." I sniffed, leaning further away from him. _This guy is a total creep! Where is Kagami to scare people when you need him to?!_

Just as Moriyama was about to make what was probably another lecherous comment, a leg came out of nowhere, roundhouse-kicking him in the side, simultaneously making me screech. "Moriyama! Stop thinking about girls and start thinking about the game!"

I was horrified. Is Kaijou full of a bunch of crazy people?!

I managed to look up, and saw my prince glaring angrily down at the other boy, eyes narrowed dangerously. I squeaked, painfully loudly to my ears, when his gaze turned to me.

"H-Hi there." I gave a short wave.

The boy - oh, how I wish I knew his name! - turned pink and stuttered out a reply. "H-Hi. Umm..."

Moriyama snickered from his position on the floor. "This is why you'll never get a girlfriend, Kasamatsu. Always getting nervous around the ladies."

I swooned. _His surname is Kasamatsu?_ "I'm Kobayashi Rin!" I bowed deeply, doing my best to make an impression. I didn't want my future husband thinking I was a nobody.

Kasamatsu swallowed, sweat gathering on his face. "K-Kasamatsu Yuk-Yukito."

_Kasamatsu Rin... that doesn't sound half-bad..._

Moriyama burst into laughter - I was doing my best to ignore him. "He can't even say his own name right! Rin-chan, don't let him confuse you. His name is Ka-sa-ma-tsu Yu-ki-o." Moriyama emphasized each syllable. "He's a blubbering fool around pretty girls like you."

Kasamatsu kicked him again. _My hero!_

I fidgeted, bowing again. _I'm going to get whiplash if I keep this up_. "N-Nice to meet you, Kasamatsu Yukio-san."

He licked his lips, clearly uncomfortable. _I'm so awful, making poor Kasamatsu-san feel so awkward._ "W-We're going back to p-practice now, K-Kobayashi-san."

My feelings of guilt disappeared as he said my name. _It sounds 100 times better coming from him!_ I nodded, suddenly re-energized. "Yes, Kasamatsu-san!"

He dragged away a reluctant Moriyama - who blew a parting kiss at me, to which I stuck my tongue at.

After he was out of earshot, I sighed, a pout settling on my face. This was the worst. Kasamatsu's teammate hits on anything with legs, while my very gender makes him flustered. There was no way I was getting anywhere with this.

"That's a real disappointment for you, isn't it?" a calm voice said from beside me, and I jumped. Kuroko stared at me, curiously, eyes round. "Are you alright, Rin-san?"

I sighed - Kuroko had gotten me, yet again - sitting back down. "When did you get there?"

"The beginning." Kuroko blinked, blue eyes round. "Ever since Moriyama-san introduced himself."

I puffed out my cheeks. "If you were there, Kuroko-san, you could've gotten him to stop hitting on me."

"Impossible."

"...you're secretly a big sadist, aren't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Rin-san."

* * *

"Let the practice match between Seirin High and Kaijou High begin!" the referee called to both teams. Everyone lined up, but the referee frowned. "Seirin, you need to have _five_ players line up."

Kuroko suddenly appeared beside him, having vanished from my side. "There are five of us, sir."

"Eh?!" everyone - Seirin and Kaijou alike - was gaping.

I was sitting on the bench beside the other first years, shaking my head. Kuroko's invisibility could really get everyone, no matter what school they were from.

"This is ridiculous," Takeuchi snorted, arms crossed over his heavily-swollen belly. "After all their boasting, I _thought_ they'd have some decent players."

"This is ridiculous," I mocked, my voice carrying unknowingly. "After all their boasting, I _thought_ they'd know not to judge others before the game even began."

* * *

Koganei and Tsuchida paled. _It's Reporter-san's clutch personality!_

"He's really done it now..." Tsuchida muttered, nervously toying with the hemming of his white t-shirt that hid his jersey from view.

Koga nodded. "I don't think even we know what we've gotten ourselves into."

* * *

"Ouch..." Riko muttered to herself, distractedly, eyeing the Kaijou team closely.

Koga, on her right, glanced at her, before turning back to the starting lineup. "What's wrong, Coach?"

Riko didn't answer, chewing nervously on her bottom lip.

"Obviously," I rolled my eyes. "she's in awe of how magnificently dashing the other team is - I mean, just look at Kasamatsu- I mean, #4! He's clearly a very well-built specimen."

Koga cringed away. "It sounds like you're going to perform experiments on them."

"Of course not, Koga-san!" I smacked his arm, lightly. "I would never... maybe write articles about them, but never experimentation!"

"I'm not too sure..."

* * *

The game started, #8 and Kagami facing off for the toss. I wasn't sure how, but somehow, Kasamatsu ended up with the ball, moving forward with the tell-tale sound of rubber hitting hardwood.

I made a face. Number 8 - I cast a quick glance at Riko's clipboard, matching the number to a name: Kobori Koji - was about two centimeters taller than Kagami, giving him a slight advantage on the toss. However, my thought process told me that Kagami was to be a superb jumper, so he should be able to compensate.

I paused. Maybe Kagami hadn't yet realized his potential for it. I made a note in my composition book to talk to him about it during the next practice.

"One." Kasamatsu's voice carried to the sidelines, where I turned pink. "Let's keep it up!"

Koga elbowed me. "Sorry, Reporter-san, but this isn't the time to be swooning."

I barely managed to restrain myself from knocking him out. "Shut _up_, Koganei!"

It was a blur of bright blue, and suddenly the ball wasn't in Kasamatsu's hand. It had been propelled forward, all the way across the court, Kuroko suddenly in possession. He slowly made his way down the court, as his dribbling skills were mediocre at best.

I cringed, scribbling down a note to at least increase his footwork. He was very dexterous, as he was a brilliant passer that could smack it away, according to Riko, but slow in everything else. I paused in my writing as I realized that this was the first time I had ever seen him play.

Kasamatsu, however, quickly caught up to the significantly slower Kuroko, grinning as he moved to cut him off. Suddenly, however, the ball wasn't Kuroko's, and Kagami blasted his way past Kasamatsu.

Step. Step. Leap.

The swish of the net.

I sighed, as the entire bench erupted around me. _I guess I'm going to get used to this._

Kagami fell from his dunk, his weight dragging him down. He landed squarely, turning to grin at his teammates. "Nice job-" he realized that he had brought something with him, the entire basket still caught in his iron grip. "Eh?"

"He destroyed the hoop!" one of the first-years wailed in amazement, while I immediately started adding up costs.

_That bastard,_ I scowled, flipping the page and jotting down a reminder to tell Izuki to buy a new hoop, _that's going to kill our treasury!_

"That thing's dangerous," I could barely hear Izuki over everyone's exclamations of disbelief. "one of the bolts is rusted."

"Even so, that's not normal." Kasamatsu retorted, fists clenching. "Not normal at all."

My expression lightened as I thought about it. Everyone was in amazement over what appeared to be Kagami's superhuman strength, when in reality, it was the board and hoop that had been damaged. But that came as a relief to us, as that meant that we wouldn't have to pay for it, as it needed replacement regardless.

_Yes! No debt for the Seirin basketball team!_

Riko stood to go apologize to the coach. "I'm so sorry!"

"Coach Takeuchi should be alright with it," I reassured her, my message loud and clear. "The hoop needed replacement anyways, as Izuki-san pointed out. Kagami was just helping out with demolition."

The coach looked far from convinced. "It would have lasted a _little_ longer!"

I blinked, innocently. "If weak Kagami could break it, who knows what insane sort of damage Kise-_kun_ could have paid? Or, even worse, what sort of damage that the strong and powerful Kasamatsu-san could have done?"

Kasamatsu suddenly got flustered, looking pointedly away from the sidelines.

Kise snickered. "Oh, does the Captain have a _girlfriend_?"

Kasamatsu did a running kick, knocking Kise clear off the bench. "Shut the hell up!"

Kuroko, surprisingly, was the one to get us back to the problem at hand. "Since we can't play like this, could we use the full court?"

* * *

Kise was put on the court, which came as no shock to us. We had practically asked for it. What we _hadn't_ asked for was the girls.

The _many, many girls_.

"Kise-kun, look over here!"

"Kise-kun, he's _soo_ hot!"

"I'm practically burning up!"

I scowled. "I'm practically throwing up."

Izuki cheered from his position. "That's the spirit, Kobayashi!"

Hyuga looked appalled. "Can girls actually say those sorts of things? How can they do it with a straight face?!"

"Thanks for coming!" Kise waved back, his 'charming' and 'dazzling' smile on his face. I wasn't as convinced.

Kasamatsu, however, was unaffected. "Oh that? That happens every time he plays. Speaking of which..." my prince sprinted towards his counterpart, slamming his foot into his back. "Quit waving to them! I'll hit you!"

I was practically glowing. Kasamatsu had kicked Kise yet again. He really _was_ the man for me!

"You already hit him." Koga muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.

I made a face. "Koganei-san, please don't insult Kasamatsu-san. _Or I'll have to kill you._"

* * *

The first-years looked horrified. "The game hasn't even continued yet and she's already in clutch-time mode!"

"If we have to sacrifice someone to appease her spirit," Kawahara hissed to his fellow second-string. "let's go with Hiroshi."

Tsuchida, Koganei and Furihata nodded furiously, while Fukuda turned white. "I'm only sixteen! I can't die yet!"

They all glanced back at Kobayashi, whose expression was lit with pure happiness. Her gaze was fixated upon #4, as if transfixed.

"Oi, Coach." Koga whispered, glancing unsurely back at Kobayashi, who was still, thankfully, distracted. "Who is '4'?"

Riko was unsurprised at the sudden question, not even bothering to check her clipboard. "Kasamatsu Yuki, third-year point guard, was also a regular on the team last year. This year, he was made captain, for his ambition and determination."

Koga blinked. "Wow, he sounds like a regular hotshot-"

"He's way more than a regular hotshot!" Kobayashi cut it, fists clenching, eyes blazing.

Koga was slightly taken back - only a week and a half ago, she had come to them as an awkward, stumbling mess. And now, not even a full two weeks later, she has the sudden confidence to interrupt him, an upperclassman. They had all become closer, he realized, as he could point out a few of Kagami's habits, tell you what happens when Kobayashi got overly irritated and about her specific 'clutch time'.

He grinned. Everyone had done their fair share of growing up in recent days.

"He's a superstar!" Kobayashi told everyone who was listening. "If you weren't my team, I'd be rooting for him 100%!"

* * *

Just as I finished jotting down notes - _totally un-Kasamatsu related, I swear -_ I looked up to see Kise sinking a dunk.

The fangirls erupted and I scowled. I hadn't seen the whole thing, but judging by the same furious shout and characteristic grip on the hoop, I realized he had copied the same move that Kagami had used a few moments ago.

The hoops were much stronger and the bolts were nice and clean, so as Kise fell, he didn't take the hoop with him. I swallowed, flashing back through what I had seen. The tensing and release of his muscles as he jumped, along with the tension along the metal that had released a low creak as he had slammed into the metal. His dunk had been many times stronger than Kagami's.

I heard a sound that sounded eerily like Kasamatsu kicking Kise in the back, but I was far too focused in my thoughts to look. "You idiot! I told you to break it!"

It had been a move-for-move copy of Kagami's move, but with more force. Kise had taken Kagami's perfect dunk and further improved it with a stronger force and greater strength, along with speed.

I was amazed.

No matter how much I didn't like the guy, I couldn't deny how great it was.

And that's how the entire first quarter went.

Kagami would pull a move and Kise would pull the exact same move, moments later. You would think that the Seirin defense would realize this and be able to counter by watching Kagami's previous movements, but they really didn't.

When I had tried shouting at them to do this, Takeuchi had told me to shut up because I was 'distracting his players'.

Rude.

* * *

It had only been three minutes, but sweat was pouring off of both teams.

Kise and Kagami had no trouble keeping up with each other, slamming dunk after dunk, performing copy after copy.

Kaijou's team looked mostly alright, their breathing far from even, but not on the edge of hyperventilation.

Seirin?

I could hear Mitobe's breathing from across the court - and he doesn't even talk.

It was insane.

If Kagami got his hands on the ball - which he did often, thanks to Kuroko's _sick_ passing, he'd score some points. If Kise got his hands on the ball, he'd score the same amount of points.

Because of this, you'd think that the score would be even, right?

Wrong.

Kasamatsu, Moriyama, and the other members of the Kaijou team were just as intense as Kise, occasionally scoring on each other. I was surprised that Hyuga, Izuki and Mitobe hadn't passed out.

However, it was clear that the high pace was difficult on Kuroko. His breathing came out dangerously loudly - his usual invisibility half-gone from the sound of his breath.

"Kuroko needs a break." I told Riko, eyes never leaving Kuroko's form. I'd probably lose sight of him if I let him go for even a moment. "He can't handle it."

Riko scowled, slightly. "We need to increase his stamina."

"It's not his fault entirely," I argued, suddenly coming to a realization. "Kuroko didn't have to do as much work when he was on the Generation of Miracles' team - he just had to pass the ball to one of them and the game was all but over. I'm not saying that it was particularly easy, but this must be a sudden change to him." I swore. "I can't believe I didn't realize this earlier."

Riko seemed to be mulling this over as she moved to the referee's table, calling a time-out. It had only been five minutes, but the score was 22-25, in Kaijou's favor.

Kuroko was wiping sweat onto a towel, his sweatbands already soaked through. "Rin-san?"

"Yeah, Kuroko-san?" I faced him, composition book tight in my grasp.

"Will you please go into my bag and grab me new sweatbands?" his voice was muffled slightly by the towel.

I nodded, though he couldn't see, digging them out and offering them to him.

"Thank you."

Hearing raised voices, I looked over to the Kaijou team, where Kasamatsu had punched Kise in the stomach. Kise wrapped his hands around Kasamatsu's-

"No." I shook my head, looking away. "If he's happy, he's happy. Even if it's with stupid Kise-_kun_. I'd be okay if it was Moriyama-san, but _Kise-kun_? Horrifying."

* * *

The second-years, who were watching Kobayashi talk to herself about Kasamatsu's love life all sweatdropped. _You have it completely backwards._

"I don't think Kasamatsu is, uhh, going out with Kise." Izuki said, in an attempt to reassure the otherwise gloomy girl._  
_

"I dunno, Izuki-san," she moped into her composition book, which she had scribbled _'Kasamatsu Yukio'_ all over in letters surrounded by hearts. "they seem chummy over there. A little _too_ chummy."

Koga was the one to speak up next, trying to apply logic to the situation. "Well, if Kasamatsu and Kise were together, wouldn't Kise's fangirls be upset?"

"No," Kobayashi spit, all too bitterly. "you don't understand fangirls. They'd rather have boy love over anything."

All of the second-years blinked. _B-Boy love?_

* * *

"We have to talk about Kise-kun first." Riko said, laying out a board and setting ten chips onto it - one for each player.

Hyuga seemed to agree, giving a short nod. "Yeah, I can't believe Kagami can't handle him. Should we put another guy on him?"

Kagami huffed, quick to defend himself. "Eh? Wait a moment... please."

"Please?" Riko repeated, as if the word coming from Kagami's mouth was all too wrong. And it was really was.

"There is a way." Kuroko said, solemnly - appearing out of nowhere from behind me.

I screeched - quietly this time, so I think that's a point to me - scooching over on the bench. "Can we get you like, I don't know, a bell?"

Kuroko ignored this, sitting down beside me. "They have a weakness."

"A-A weakness?" Riko said, in disbelief.

Hyuga, however, seemed a bit more annoyed. "What? You could have told us this earlier!"

"No," Kuroko said quickly, holding up a hand. "to be honest, I'm not necessarily sure it could be classified as a weakness. However, there is another problem. Because of the unexpectedly high-paced play, my effectiveness is wearing off."

Hyuga looked astonished, but I nodded. "I was doing my best to keep an eye on you, Kuroko-san, throughout the game. It got increasingly easier as I went on. I got used to you, so your effectiveness was wearing away."

"_Why didn't you say something sooner?!_" Riko screeched, pulling Kuroko into a headlock.

"I'm sorry!" he apologized, gripping at her arms. "You didn't ask!"

That seemed to piss Riko off even further. "Do you not say things unless you're asked?!"

I snickered - Kuroko looked like he was in agony... it was possibly the most emotion I had ever seen him with and it was pain, but Riko directed her attention towards me. "You too! You figured it out and you didn't even say something?! What's the point of you being an observer if you don't report your observations?!"

I cringed, stepping towards Hyuga and Mitobe - the strength of tall people would protect me. But Hyuga and Mitobe simply stepped further backwards, their fear of Riko much greater than their courtesy.

"You awful human beings!" I wailed, grabbing Kawahara and shoving him forward. "Take the boy! I'm too pretty to die!"

Just as Riko was about to throw poor unfortunate Kawahara aside, the referee blew his whistle. "Your time out is over!"

"Eh?!" Riko panicked. "All I got to do was hit Kuroko-kun! I didn't even get a smack in on Rin-san!"

_Good_, I thought.

Riko barked out a few last orders before the referee blew his whistle - the first quarter continued.

Our team set up a box-and-one - everyone's focus around Kise. Kise's eyes darted to the right and I shrieked. "Someone cover Kasamatsu-san!"

Face slightly pink, Kasamatsu shot from outside the arc. The sound of the basket swishing was almost painful to hear.

"A three pointer!" Furihata exclaimed, eyes wide in awe.

"Come off it, Furihata-san." I threw him a look. "Hyuga-san has done _plenty_ of three-pointers during practice. Stop building up their ego."

* * *

Right after Kobayashi said that, she realized who shot it. "W-Was that Kasamatsu-san?" she asked Koga, who sighed in response.

"Yes, that was Kasamatsu."

She leapt to her feet. "Rockin' it out, Kasamatsu-san! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Kasamatsu!"

In that moment, Koganei swears that the first-years shot her the darkest look in Japanese history. "Come off it, Kobayashi-san. Hyuga-senpai has done _plenty_ of three-pointers during practice." Furihata said, darkly. "Stop building up their ego."

"Oh, really funny, that was, Furihata-san." Kobayashi plopped herself back onto the bench. "I'm laughing so hard. Throwing my own words back at me. You should write a book."

* * *

The real surprise of the first quarter came when Moriyama blocked a pass from Kagami to Kuroko.

"That was probably for me." I blinked, as he shot a two-pointer. "After all, I am his 'princess'."

Koga gave me a weird look, but didn't question it. I had, after all, been unusually chatty that day, and he was probably done with putting up with my antics.

I was about to explain - couldn't have Koganei thinking that I was crazy after all - when laughter, uncontrolled laughter, cut through the quiet gym.

I turned, ever so slightly, to see Kagami's shoulders shaking. I wasn't even sure if it was laughter- it could be classified as cackling, giggling, an enthusiastic guffaw.

He suddenly stopped, a wide grin on his face. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but when I squinted, I could see the formation of tears in his eyes.

_Had he laughed so hard that he cried?!_

He seemed to have figured something out, moving across the court. He planted a huge hand onto a rather uncomfortable-looking Kuroko's head, saying something to Kise, whose eyes narrowed.

"He figured out Kise-kun's weakness." Riko murmured, probably unaware that she was speaking aloud.

I shuddered. Kagami Taiga was truly a monster.

* * *

**Kya finished chapter 3**

**I'm actually really sick right now lmao**

**But since im sick, idk what to do so i write for the ultimate sophistication**

**i like the title**

**also rin likes kasamatsu**

**just for the record, i dont want anyone to take her liking of kasamatsu seriously**

**like bitch it's a crush**

**just wait until rin meets sakurai ryo**

**shit gets real**

* * *

**Question:**

**do YOU like kasamatsu**

**i do**

**oopa**

* * *

**Leave a review**

**this was like 6,700 words ish i think**

**also i just watched all of season 1 of knb during the weekend of sickness**

**maybe ill watch all of season 2 tomorrow, if i dont go to school**

**LeoInuyuka**

* * *

**shit i forgot**

**there is a poll on my profile for rin**

**go check it out yo**


	4. Counterattack

Chapter 4

Counterattack

* * *

**Kohi (to Rin): "Your sarcasm? Not wanted."**  
**Me: "Her sarcasm? Its the most wanted thing in the story."  
-NerdyPengy**

**Rin is still hoping to meet a normal GoM-member, how hilariously naive. Going to Rakuzan isn't going to help if you want to get away from all the crazy, Reporter-san!  
-aignir**

* * *

"His weakness is Kuroko?" I repeated, having barely gathered as much over everyone's exaggerated gasps of horror. I mean, I know (well, I know now) that Kise is supposed to be some fancy-dancy prodigy, but everyone has something that they're not good at.

And I'd die to find out Kise's.

I considered Kise's apparent weakness, trying to figure out Kagami's reasoning for it. Kise could copy everything he had _seen_, but if he can't see Kuroko, then he can't copy him.

It was simple, but it could be the way to take Kaijou down.

However, there was a problem with this.

Kuroko didn't have the sort of stamina to stay in for a full forty minutes. Not to mention, with his misdirection wearing off, he was becoming more of a burden than a benefit.

The whistle was blown, for the end of the first quarter. I sighed - Kagami and Kise had probably wasted a majority of the first ten minutes talking smack to each other. But now that Kagami believed to have the upper hand and had doused his hot head, things could be changing before the start of the second half.

I rose off of the bench, giving my seat to an exhausted Izuki. "Thanks," he murmured, all but collapsing onto the seat.

Almost everyone looked worn out - there were monsters like Kise and Kagami who could do this all day, but Hyuga, Izuki and Mitobe (AKA _normal people_) were going to knock themselves out.

I scribbled down a summary of the first quarter for my report - _Kaijou and Seirin scoring point after point, Kaijou leading 35 to 27, a mere eight point difference, this game could go either way - _and looked up, to tune into the team conversation.

"Kagami-kun," Riko was saying, eyeing over her team critically. "looks like you finally cooled down."

Kagami looked absolutely offended. "Excuse me? I was always-"

Izuki and Hyuga scoffed simultaneously. "You were really pissed!"

"For the second quarter, Kagami-kun and Kuroko-kun's coordination will be key." she continued, wearing a slight frown. "Can you do it?"

Kagami glanced unsurely at his partner. "Yeah, uhh, probably. We'll make it wo-" Choke.

I laughed. Kuroko had suddenly jabbed the much taller boy in the stomach.

"You bastard," Kagami swore. "where the hell did that come from?"

"You want to beat Kise-kun, don't you?" it seemed like Kuroko was issuing a challenge, but I wasn't sure, as his voice and tone stayed even.

Kagami looked away for a moment.

I felt like all of us were intruding on this wonderful moment, two people who were complete opposites coming together to defeat one common enemy - and yes, Kise was definitely the enemy - overcoming differences to work as one-

Kagami jabbed Kuroko. "Of course I do."

-or they're a bunch of dolts.

Riko sighed, crossing her arms as if saying _Am I really entrusting this game to a pair of idiots?_ "Take care of the counterattack."

* * *

The second quarter started off just like the first one - one team making a basket, the other reciprocating in turn. The difference remained a solid eight, until Hyuga sunk a beautiful three.

He looked immensely proud of himself, adjusting glasses that had slipped down his nose. "Have you changed your minds, first year-" he turned to look at an awed team, but instead saw the backs of Izuki, Kuroko and Kagami.

"Nice." Kagami said, marching back, to Kuroko. "All right, defense!"

Hyuga twitched. "Hey."

Kagami and Kuroko's coordination had really made a difference on the court. Instead of Kuroko's passing and Kagami's one-on-one, where there had only been the two options, shoot/layup or dunk from Kagami, he could pass back to Kuroko, which opened up the whole court for opportunities like Hyuga's threes.

Kagami was the one making the decisions for the plays - whether to go for the dunk, shoot, layup or pass - but Kuroko was the only reason that it hadn't fallen apart in front of them.

I sat up straighter in my seat. Their coordination was wonderful, it was brilliant, it was-

Kagami moved to pass to where he thought Kuroko was. Emphasis on _thought_. Kuroko, who had been no where near the receiving end of that pass, looked accusingly to an awkward Kagami.

-a work in progress.

I started writing down short descriptions of the Kaijou players for my report.

_Kise Ryota - copycat of the Generation of Miracles  
Kasamatsu Yukio - beautiful and swoon-worthy _(I crossed that out when Koga looked pointedly over my shoulder)_ captain of Kaijou  
Moriyama Yoshitaka - unique shooting form for shooting guard  
Hayakawa Mitsuhiro - aggressiv__e at getting rebounds  
Koji Kobori - talented defensive center_

"Oi," Koga poked me lightly on the shoulder. "Are you going to write nice little descriptions for us too?"

I stared blankly at him. "You haven't done anything yet."

He looked offended. "I-I will, I'm good at making, umm, shots from all ranges. You can write that down and put it in your book and then put it in your article, right?"

"Will it go in?" I asked him, crossing my arms. "If you shoot from the half-court line, will it go in? Because I heard a rumor about one of the Generation of Miracles, who can make a shot from anywhere on the court and have it go in-"

"Fine, I get it!" Koga puffed out his cheeks, which only further increased his resemblance to a cat. "I'm more of a jack of all trades, master of none sort of guy."

I scoffed. "That's not going to impress anyone."

"Just make me sound good, okay?"

I rolled my eyes, but started a description chart for the Seirin players as well.

_Kagami Taiga - first year powerful ace for the team with impressive shots  
Kuroko Tetsuya - passing specialist with low presence, but high skills  
Hyuga Junpei - clutch-player with three pointers from hell  
Izuki Shun - intelligent, with high shooting percentage  
Mitobe Rinnosuke - highly skilled defensive center  
Tsuchida Satoshi - specialty is rebounding  
Koganei Shinji - jack of all trades, master of none_

"I sound so cool." Koganei marveled, grinning at my book as if it was his son.

"Congrats." I muttered, slamming it shut. "Now can I focus?"

"Sorry."

* * *

"Watch out, Koganei-senpai," Furihata hissed to his oblivious upperclassman.

Koga blinked. "Why?"

"You don't want her to go into clutch-mode, again, _do you_?" Fukuda exclaimed, as if horrified that no, Koga _did not_ know.

Koga got the hint, miming zipping his mouth closed. _If I'm not careful, I'm going to get myself killed!_

* * *

I looked up from my notebook - I sat down on it, so as to further discourage Koga from getting an article about himself - to see Kise getting back-tipped by Kuroko, straight to Kagami.

"Seirin!" I cheered, my voice joining the first-years in a shaky harmony. "Let's go Seirin!"

Kise, getting the ball back after the play, attempted a three-pointer, which Kagami stopped by using Kuroko's head as a launchboard, sending himself several centimeters further than his regular jump would have. I cringed for poor Kuroko - _don't worry, I will attend your funeral._ I had to get Kagami to work on his jumps during the next few practice sessions. Or, at least, I should mention it to Riko, who could force Kagami to work on his jumps.

Kagami slapped the ball out of Kise's hands mid-jump, landing soundly. "Fast break!" he pressed forward.

Kise whipped around to chase after him.

I want you to know, right now, that I dislike Kise Ryota with 98% of my being - the other 2% being admiration for his prodigious skills. And in that moment, even the 2% of admiration, disappeared.

My heart stopped.

I think Kise's did too.

As Kise turned to follow after Kagami, his arm whipped around behind him. And Kuroko had just so happened to be positioned in just the right location.

It was no one's fault really, but I couldn't help the burst of anger that rose up inside of me.

The whistle blew, the referee stammering out a "Referee time out!", but no one really listened.

I was already on the court, kneeling at Kuroko's side. He pushed himself to a seating position, opening his left eye - his right temple had been torn open, blood dumping out.

He moved to stand up, but I bit my lip. "Kuroko-san, don't push yourself-"

He swayed. "I... I feel lightheaded."

"Someone get me a first-aid kit!" I shouted, peeling off the blue cardigan of my uniform, tossing it to the side of the bench. Hyuga and I helped Kuroko along to the area behind the bench. Furihata and Kawahara busied themselves, setting up an impromptu bed from blankets provided by the referees.

"Are you alright?" Kagami hesitantly asked Kuroko, as I began dumping antiseptic onto a clean cloth.

He nodded. "I'm fine. The game is just getting started-" his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed in my arms.

"Fukuda-san." I barked, the boy standing at attention. "Hold Kuroko-san up for me, I'm going to clean and wrap his head injury."

Riko frowned, slightly. "Do you have first-aid certification?"

"Of course I do." I managed to appear offended. "My sister used to be a Yankee - I had to take care of her _all the time_."

"I'm kind of scared of your family," Izuki stated.

"Good choice." I muttered, dabbing the cloth onto his forehead. "Furihata-san, please lean Kuroko's head back, it'll be quicker to just dump the peroxide and wipe the excess."

I cleaned out Kuroko's wound with the help of the first-years. I bandaged it cleanly, taping it tightly.

Riko knelt down beside me, but I shook my head. "You're the coach, so you can pay attention to the game. I can take care of Kuroko-san."

Riko hesitated for a moment, before nodding. "Okay, Rin-san. We're counting on you."

* * *

Kasamatsu wiped his face on his jersey across the gym, watching as the reporter g-g-girl took care of Kuroko, her expression focused as she wiped up the excess blood and peroxide. "They're finished."

She was ordering the other first-years around easily, as the regulars and coach spoke strategy around her.

_She was odd, definitely so. Even though it was clear that he was horribly shy around her (and all other persons of the same gender), she had not commented on it, instead offering a smile that had done nothing to assist his current state._

"It's not what should have happened, though." he continued, eyes never leaving the opposite team. "Without that first-year duo, the score difference will only increase."

Her hands were steady, bandaging the boy with the type of familiarity a person could get after practicing hundreds of times.

_She was tiny, her hands quick and skilled. She had definitely taken some sort of lessons before - perhaps piano?_

"What can we do though?" Kasamatsu finally turned away, dropping his shirt back into place. "It's already happened."

_And he was never **ever** going near her again._

* * *

I pried off Kuroko's basketball shoes, setting them down in front of his feet.

I double-checked the bandages - no blood had soaked through, so that was good. Head wounds bled a little bit more than usual, so it didn't look too bad, but if left untreated, the blood loss could knock a person out. Kuroko's build was smaller than my sister's, so if she had sustained the same blow, she would probably still be conscious. However, since he had a smaller body and therefore less blood, he had been knocked out, almost immediately. Another possible explanation could have been shock, or also exhaustion, considering the fast-pace. However, Kagami had put his entire weight onto Kuroko's head earlier, so previous damage could have already been sustained.

I sighed. He really needed to take better care of himself.

"Lie him down, Fukuda-san, Furihata-san." I said, retying my hair in it's usual ponytail. "He'll be alright, with a little rest. I'll check him for a concussion when he wakes up, but since it was little trauma, there shouldn't be any internal bleeding. However, Kise-" I had dropped the polite suffix after being infuriated. "-is very physically strong, so with little impact, a great deal of force could have been delivered. He won't require hospitalization, but he should check with a professional about the concussion and internal bleeding."

Izuki looked impressed. "Where'd you learn all of that stuff, Kobayashi?"

I looked up at him. "I thought I had already established this. My sister was a Yankee, and I took care of her a lot."

As Furihata and Fukuda were making Kuroko comfortable, I tuned into the strategy plan. Riko sounded a bit disappointed, but firm. "Kagami-kun, do everything you can to prevent Kise-kun from scoring."

"Also beat his face in with a blunt object." I muttered, crossing my arms.

* * *

Furihata and Fukuda almost dropped Kuroko._ Her clutch-personality is coming out!_

"Are you sure that'll work?" Kagami demanded, towering over the small coach.

"It'll be fine," Hyuga interrupted suddenly. "have a little faith."

Kobayashi laughed bitterly, once. "Yeah, Kagamin-"

"Kagamin?" he repeated, sourly.

"-have a lil faith in them. They can handle the rest of big bad Kaijou." when it looked like he was going to protest further, she snarled at him. "Stop bein' a selfish asshole and grow a few."

"But-" Kagami looked at Hyuga - Kobayashi was being too weird for him to handle, especially without Kuroko to distract her.

Hyuga, however, was no better than the first-year reporter, a fake smile painted across his face. "_I said it'll be fine, dumbass. Listen to your upperclassmen once in a while, or I'll kill you._"

Kagami looked horrified, leaning further away from his captain.

"You think you can run to him?" Kobayashi smiled, and Kagami could practically see the flowers dancing around her. "You're wrong, fool. Listen to your goddamn coach and team, before I consume you."

Everyone paled.

Hyuga grunted out an agreement, marching off as the whistle blew to resume. "First-years should show more respect for their seniors! Get on your knees!"

"You're showing your true colors, Captain." Izuki called after him, lamely.

Kobayashi sneered, turning to sit beside Kuroko so quickly her ponytail slapped Kagami in the arm. "I thought that this team was actually alright, but it turns out it's full of a bunch of disrespectful children! I'm transferring to Rakuzan, and getting away from these imbeciles!"

Izuki grumbled in offense. "I'm not an imbecile... I'm worth your while."

She shot him a dark look.

"Shutting up now."

* * *

The boys got back into it, as I settled down beside Kuroko.

I heard bits and pieces from the game - "Nice icy hot Salon pass." - which fortunately included Izuki's sick jokes.

I repackaged everything back into the medical kit, sliding it back to Riko, who nodded.

Kuroko showed no signs of reawakening, but his wound hadn't yet bled through the bandages. If it did, I would call an ambulance, because I hadn't managed to halt the bleeding. If he bled too much, I wouldn't be able to take care of him, and that would be up to the professionals.

* * *

Somewhere in the distance, a bike pulling a cart slowly climbed up a hill.

* * *

The second half ended, the high pace severely tolling everyone's energy.

However, there was nothing Riko could do. There was nothing any of us could do.

The third quarter ended just as quickly.

"If only we had Kuroko-kun..." Riko murmured to herself, distantly, so focused in her thoughts that she hadn't even realized she had spoken aloud.

His finger twitched.

I closed my eyes. I _really_ wish she hadn't said that.

"Very well." Kuroko's left eye was squeezed shut - presumably from the pain - but his right one was fully functioning, flickering to me once, and then to the scoreboard. He pushed himself to his feet, swatting me away as I tried to hold him back.

"Kuroko, no-"

"Good morning." he greeted the astonished benchline. "I'll be going, then."

"Oh no you aren't!" I denied, darting in front of him. "You have a head injury and could possibly have a concussion!"

"But she just said to go." he, too, towered over me, as I was the shortest among everyone present. However, he was far from intimidating, with one eye squeezed shut and the other wide and innocent.

"I didn't mean to say that!" Riko defended, as I turned to shoot her a look - I had definitely not missed that. "It kind of, uhh, slipped out...?"

Kuroko had slipped out from in front of me as I had looked accusingly at Riko. He now stood in front of her, the final barrier separating him from the game. "If I can change anything by going out there, then I will. Besides..." he blinked for a moment, testing his vision. "I did promise Kagami-kun that I would be his shadow."

I could see Riko's resolve wavering.

_Don't give in to his sad eyes! Stay strong!_

But I knew it was all over when she sighed, shoulders heaving in surrender. "Fine. But! If I think you're in trouble, you're out, immediately."

* * *

With six minutes to go, Kuroko switched out with Koganei, the Kaijou team leading 74 to 68. The difference was small, and there was still plenty of time. But I doubted that Kuroko would be functioning at full power. His misdirection should be back, since the Kaijou team had had some time off without him buzzing in the back of their minds.

This whole thing could turn around.

* * *

Within a minute, the score became 82 - 80, Kaijou's lead. The fourth quarter was going like the first half - a series of high-paced back and forth between the two monstrously powerful offensive teams.

Hyuga sunk a clean basket, tying the score. The first-years and I were sure to voice our cheers.

"Nice one, Captain!"

"Seirin! Seirin!"

"Worry about the score? No more!"

(Riko elbowed me viciously in response, but I simply cringed, deciding that shutting up was the safer path.)

But as realization settled in on Kaijou's side, something changed. Kise's entire demeanor was different, a different sort of ferocity about him. Kuroko, Kagami and Kasamatsu seemed to all notice it too.

I inhaled sharply. If Kaijou was going to make a comeback, now was the time, with Kise getting all bothered like he was. Kasamatsu realized this as well (of course he did, he _is_ my darling, after all), snatching the ball from mid-air and flinging it, almost desperately, at Kise. "Kise!"

It was a blur of gold. One moment, Kise was there, the next, he was not. I blinked, feeling like the world was going in slow-motion while Kise was the only moving at regular speed.

The whistle blew.

He had dunked.

Both teams were fired up. Kaijou was determined not to lose, but Seirin was determined to win. And that, I believe, is what made the final difference.

* * *

The final score ended up being 100 - 98. Kagami and Kuroko, growing sick of the back-and-forth run and gun, realized the one solution - a buzzer beater.

I had been on my feet cheering wildly, alongside Fukuda, Furihata and Kawahara. The basket's gentle swoosh and the shrill shriek of the whistle had been all but music to my ears.

Kise looked devastated at the end, tears brimming his eyes - but I had, though it sounds cruel, not cared in the least.

Kise was the enemy. He had struck Kuroko - accident or not - and his antics aggravated me to the point of becoming shamefully chatty. He was smart, probably a genius and had a photographic memory.

He was superior in every way.

So, I suppose, jealousy was one of the main contributors towards my animosity towards Kise, but I was far from mature enough to let it go.

Not even close.

* * *

The basketball team invited me to eat dinner with them - Riko had spotted an eating competition label on the side of a truck, advertising free steak if you finished your meal.

I opted out, albeit as politely as I could. "I have to get home and polish up this report and email it to Kohi. Thanks for the offer though."

The second-years started to try to get me to buy into the idea. "But the steak would be..." Izuki paused for dramatic effect. "...nice."

"I don't get it." I shook my head. "What's the point of making jokes that no one understands?"

Izuki tsk-ed at me, holding up a notebook. _When did he have the time to write this down?_ "The Japanese word for steak, すてき_, _otherwise pronounced as _suteki_, sounds very similar to the English word for steak. It's punny, Kobayashi, punny!"

I stared at him for a moment longer, turning to Riko. "I'll be leaving now."

"I'm slightly offended that there wasn't even a reaction."

* * *

**Article Topic:**_ Kaijou VS Seirin: a Practice Victory for Seirin!_

**Main Points:** _This week, Seirin's basketball team went to the Kanagawa Prefecture for a practice match with Kaijou High School, a sports-minded school with plans for the top._

_For a first match, this was intense, the first half and final quarter each intense and very back-and-forth, as Kaijou ace, Kise Ryota, copied each of Seirin ace's Kagami Taiga's moves with an unfortunately keen eye._

_Among the heat of the match, Seirin first-year Kuroko Tetsuya was accidentally struck, but luckily was unharmed and resumed play after two quarters._

_Seirin second-year captain, Hyuga Junpei, proved himself not to be outmatched by his teammates, sinking plenty of three-pointers and two-pointers from further down the court._

_With a final buzzer-beater from the combination of Kagami Taiga and Kuroko Tetsuya, Seirin pulled a narrow victory, the final score 100 - 98._

* * *

To: swagcoffee42069666

From: rinrinforthewin

_Kohi!_

_I finished my report for the Kaijou vs Seirin practice match! It was so intense - you should come along to the Interhigh matches, when we play against more of the Generation of Miracles! Kise, though I strongly dislike him, was brilliant on the court and I can't wait to see the others!_

_I think I'm a bit too excited._

_But can you really help it?_

_Please have my report edited as quickly as possible!_

_Thank you,_

_Kobayashi Rin_

* * *

To: rinrinforthewin

From: swagcoffee42069666

_Report approved, little human_

_actually u r tiny, i mean have u seen those bball guys_

_u should have seen good ol' iron heart last year. he was taller than ur lil kagami by a long shot_

_get it_

_shot_

_cuz bball_

_im too funny_

* * *

Kohi replied almost immediately to my email, and it was only Monday. The report itself wasn't due until the Wednesday, and the article the following Friday.

I started reformatting the report - I would be able to slack off for the rest of the week if I finished the article then!

My sister poked her head in the door, eyes half-lidded with drowsiness. "Rin, it's like midnight, go to sleep."

I think I've mentioned my sister before. She used to be a Yankee in middle school, but had shapen herself up after going into high school. She attended Too Academy for a while, taking the thirty-minute train ride from our house to the school. But a year after her graduation, Seirin opened it's gates, and I attended the much closer school in favor of the shorter commute.

She's a first-year at college now, but we had always been relatively close, despite the slight age difference.

"Isa, if I finish this now, then I can just completely skip practice for the rest of the week," I attempted to reason. "if I have my article for this week done, then I don't even need to pay attention!"

Isa scowled in response. "Do it tomorrow, or durin' class. I don't care. Just don't do it now - you always leave your door open when you fall asleep, so the light is goin' to drive me fuckin' insane."

Somewhere from down the hall, my mom chided, "Language!"

Isa had always been special to me. She had always been the one to stand up for me - with her words or with her fists - and take charge. She was a little rough around the edges, sure, but she was wonderful and I wouldn't trade her for the world.

So in response to my mother's slight scolding, she only rolled her eyes. "You're gonna be exhausted in the mornin' anyways, this is a bad choice. Take my advice, I've gone through this before."

"But you got kicked out of the newspaper club in your third year." I returned, shortly. I would finish up my article in the next ten minutes, maybe less.

"That's not how it happened," she wrinkled her nose. "in the basketball club, there was this fuckin' first-year called like Wakka-Wakka or somethin' or the other, and all the crazy shit he did drove me bonkers. It ain't my fault I broke his nose. I warned 'im that I was goin' to beat him down, it was all him."

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. I had heard this story a thousand times. "I know, I know. And his name was like Wakamatsu Kosuke. I remember because I had to fill out his hospital paperwork with that glasses guy after you completely refused to."

"See?" she nodded. "Pain in the ass. Now turn off your damn light and go to bed." she forcibly unplugged my lamp, tossing the cable onto the door, shutting the door with a _slam_, behind her, as if making a point.

I closed my laptop and replugged the lamp into the wall. _I guess that the article can wait for Tuesday._

* * *

**Lmao this was like only 4000 words, so noticeably shorter**

**but she wasn't really too involved with the actual basketball part of it because she doesn't play...?**

**does that make sense**

**like im not going to fucking insert her everywhere, only in the relevant parts**

* * *

**Question:**

**if kohi had to get married to anyone, who would she get married to**

* * *

**Leave a review**

**or dont idgaf**

**actually i do gaf**

**so leave one**

**LeoInuyuka**


	5. The Anomaly

Chapter 5

The Anomaly

* * *

**Reviewer Quote:**

**Does Isa attending Touou affect the future match? Them junior and senior players won't know what hit him. And yeah, Waka is annoying sometimes, I hope he's terrified of Rin too...  
- Eien no Ajisai**

**Anyway, since Isa is an alumni from Too, then Imayoshi should know her as his ex senpai right? Maybe you should make Imayoshi scared because he's gonna meet he's ex yankee senpai's sister right  
- ResyaAfhirsa00018**

* * *

The morning after we narrowly scraped a victory against Seirin, I boarded the train with a feeling of contentment.

It didn't take much for Satsuki to pick up on it, pink eyebrows shooting up immediately. "Spill."

I blinked, sinking into the open seat, between Aomine and Satsuki. Judging by his annoyed expression and her distance away from him, they had been in an argument before I had boarded the train, so it would be better if I served as a wall. "What are you talking about? Oh- hello, Aomine-san."

He glanced in my direction. "...Kobayashi."

Satsuki, not liking to be ignored, squished my face between her hands. "Something important happened to you yesterday!"

I thought for a moment. "Oh, Seirin won against Kaijou..." I trailed off as I felt Aomine tense up beside me. Sometimes I forgot that he was on the Too basketball team - I had never seen him play, so there was nothing memorable about his status as a player other than his title as one of the Generation of Miracles.

"No, I already know all about that." Satsuki waved off, scooching forward on the bench to the edge of the seat. "But there's something about you that's different."

Aomine's eyes flickered to me. "...she's remindin' me of you, Satsuki, when ya first met Tetsu."

* * *

Satsuki straightened. It couldn't be... could it?

_Had Rin discovered her..._

Satsuki's eyes sparkled.

_...true love?_

* * *

I elbowed Aomine. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're off in la-la land." he retorted, pointedly looking away from me. "It's gross."

"Don't call me gross, you sick jerk-!"

"Oh, Rin-chan!" Satsuki suddenly burst out, dramatically draping herself onto me, practically crushing me in her embrace. "I knew this day would come! Oh, who is it? Do I know him? (Of course, it could be a girl too, I would never judge you, but since it happened at the Kaijou vs Seirin game, it's statistically more likely to be male) Is he Seirin or Kaijou?"

I tried to speak. "Actually-"

"Oh it has to be Kaijou," she continued on, speaking over me to an Aomine who looked like he could care less. "because if it was Seirin, she would have known _weeks_ ago. Oh, this is so romantic! But Kaijou isn't in her district, let alone prefecture... this is awful, Aomine-kun, I don't even know what to say!"

He scoffed. "You've said enough."

"It's like star-crossed lovers, since you're on separate teams! It'll all work out though, I'm sure, Rin-chan." She ignored him. "Oh, once you guys are together, you can go on double-dates with Tetsu-kun and me! We can go on long walks together, and maybe to the cinema, and _OH MY GOD,_ we can go to the amusement park as a group!"

"What about Aomine-san?" I managed to say, slightly intimidated by her onslaught of ideas. Of course, I knew who she was talking about - it couldn't have been anyone but Kasamatsu Yukio, the captain of Kaijou basketball team, my prince, my leader, the true apple of my eye.

(I can assure you, it was definitely _not_ Moriyama.)

"Aomine-kun can come along too!" she chirped, bouncing up and down in her seat. "Like a chaperone. Not like we'd need one though, Tetsu-kun is _such_a gentleman."

One look at Aomine's face could tell you that he definitely did _not_ agree with that suggestion.

"You don't even know who you're talking about-" I tried to say, but that seemed to elate her further.

"Oh, I should guess!" she practically glowed, clasping her hands together in front of her. "I know who everyone on Kaijou's team is - it is Ki-chan's team, so I've already written up a report on them. I'm going to say it's a regular, because Takeuchi wasn't being very nice to you guys and only gave you half a court, right? So you're lucky that Kagamin broke the hoop."

I had noticed that Satsuki knew a lot. Like _a lot_. As in, if I asked her to, she could probably recount the events of the entire basketball game to me.

She was smart. Dangerously so.

I mentally thanked whoever is up there for making us friends, though rivals. I'd hate to be on her bad side... just imagine the dirt she could dig up on you.

"So there's Moriyama Yoshitaka-san, but he doesn't seem like your type," she said, listing them off on her fingers. "He's kind of a playboy-wannabe, and your standards _have_ to be higher than that. It's definitely not Ki-chan - you two didn't get along, right? After what he accidentally did to Tetsu-kun... I can understand why you wouldn't like him. But it was an accident, so I forgave him."

Aomine zoned into that last bit. "What did Kise do to Tetsu?"

"He slammed into him, giving him a head wound, that knocked him unconscious." I responded, blankly. "I determined no concussion, no internal bleeding, just minor external. However, had the blow been dealt with a bit more force, Kuroko could have been hospitalized. Everyone went to the hospital, but I had to get home right after the game. Izuki-san texted me that my diagnosis was 100% accurate."

Aomine narrowed his eyes at me. "So Tetsu's alright?"

"I'm going to say he'll wear the bandages for a couple of days," I said, watching Aomine carefully. "but he will make a full recovery."

His shoulders slumped slightly in relief - this was clear. I had sensed feelings of animosity between Aomine and Kuroko. When I had mentioned Aomine to Kuroko before, the latter had quickly avoided conversation. Despite this, it appeared that Aomine still worried about Kuroko, and honestly, I felt like I had stepped into a drama.

Satsuki pulled her way back into the conversation. "Now, I'm glad that Tetsu-kun is alright and all, but Rin, don't go and change the subject. If it's not Ki-chan or Moriyama-san, it has to be either Kobori Koji-san, Hayakawa Mitsuhiro-san or the captain, Kasamatsu Yukio-san."

I felt my heart stop at Kasamatsu's name. "N-No, you have it all wrong-"

Satsuki, however, must have been some sort of detective, her entire stature becoming still. "...no way."

"Why is this happening to me?" I asked the ceiling, pathetically. She had figured it out. My life was over. The Seirin team already knew all about it, but Kohi and Ichisada had no idea. If they found out, I knew that there would be next to endless teasing.

Aomine rolled his eyes. "Come off it, Satsuki. Spill."

I was going to cry. _Even Aomine wants to know?! This is the end!_

"She doesn't like anyone!" Satsuki pouted, crossing her arms.

Aomine scoffed, looking out the window. "How dull."

As Aomine turned away, Satsuki winked at me. I felt my face burn red. _She knows!_

* * *

I exited the train without incident - Satsuki certainly didn't miss the way that I all but fled.

When I arrived to the classroom, I went straight to my seat, pulling out my laptop and started editing the report. I had finished the report - Kohi had approved of it and everything - and the quickest way to write an article would be by formatting a report directly into an article.

_This week, Seirin's basketball team went to the Kanagawa Prefecture for a practice match with Kaijou High School, a sports-minded school who have consistently held a position at the Interhigh Tournament._

_It was Seirin's first match - practice or not - of the year, and expectations were high for the team that, in the season previous, led them to the finals of the Interhigh. And Seirin certainly delivered._

_The first half had been a very intense back-and-forth race to the finish, Seirin's rookie ace, Kagami Taiga, constantly head-to-head against Kaijou's rookie ace, Kise Ryota, a previous member of Teiko Middle School's famed Generation of Miracles. However, Seirin first-year Kuroko Tetsuya was accidentally struck by Kise, but recovered quickly, resuming play after two quarters._

_Seirin's second-year captain, Hyuga Junpei, proved himself worthy of his title, sinking many three-pointers and two-pointers. However, Kaijou refused to allow Seirin a lead, the fourth quarter looking to end in a tie, which would result in overtime._

_Desperate to avoid this, a combination of Kagami Taiga and Kuroko Tetsuya, Seirin pulled a narrow victory, the final score 100 - 98._

* * *

I sighed in content - the article had pulled itself together quite nicely, after I had applied the report as a backbone. I sent it off to Kohi, but received no immediate response.

"That was a very good article, Rin-san."

I jumped out of my seat, almost knocking my laptop off of my desk. I whipped around to see Kuroko watching me with a poker-face. I looked accusingly at him.

"...did I startle you?" he asked, dryly, head tilted slightly to express his sarcasm.

"You're awful." I told him, closing my laptop and dropping it into my bag. "You're not supposed to read those until they're published."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." he apologized, but judging by the way the corner of his mouth tugged upward, he really wasn't that sorry.

I made a face. "Fine. But no sneaking up on me anymore!"

"Your laptop is a mess." he told me, walking forward and straddled the seat in front of mine, facing me. "You should get a new one."

I puffed out my cheeks. "I know it is! No need to remind me..."

I really did know that it was a mess. The poor thing was scratched up all over, with the corners chipped and the keys mix-matched. One of them was a pink Barbie computer key, the paint beginning to peel at the corner. My laptop was practically a dinosaur, held together by various colors of duct-tape. I really did need a new one, but my family couldn't afford it. Computers were expensive, and we didn't have the money for it. Honestly, we were struggling to pay Isa's college tuition. Anyways, my computer worked fine, so I had never bothered about it.

"The Newspaper Club should supply you with one." he said, suddenly, watching as I became forlorn. "There's only a few people in that club, they can probably afford supplying one for each member, or at least some to borrow."

"Not with that budget." I made a face. "We get enough for paper and ink - Ichisada-san is _always_ complaining about it at meetings."

Kuroko was silent.

"Not like it's a big deal," I waved off, taking his silence as pity. "My laptop works and that's all I care about."

He nodded. "Of course, Rin-san."

"Kuroko-san, class is going to start soon." I warned him, seeing as other students began filtering into their seats. "You should get back to your-"

When I looked up, he was gone.

* * *

Riko sent me a text during lunchtime._  
_

**_Practice cancelled. I've already told the others._**

I blinked. _I wonder why... _I shrugged mentally - wasn't my problem, and sent a quick confirmation.

Suddenly, my afternoon had opened up. I sent a text to Satsuki - **_My afternoon is free. Are you available__ today?_**

The response was immediate.

_**Yes! :) I'll be at Seirin Station at 4 for you, ok? Aomine-kun might come too :/ sry _ i read it out loud and he said he'd come 2**_

**_No prob. See you 2 then._**

I snapped my phone closed, dropping it back into my bag. Having friends was so odd.

* * *

It was ten minutes into practice when Kagami realized someone was missing. "...Kuroko, where's that reporter girl?"

Kuroko, who had just finished twenty sit-ups, raised an eyebrow. "Did you just notice, Kagami? Are you really that unobservant?"

"S-Shut up!"

"Now you're embarrassed. I hope you don't have a crush on Rin-san, that would make practices very awkward-"

"That's not it at all!"

Riko rolled her eyes. "I told her not to come. I want to discuss something that Kuroko-kun pointed out."

The the first and second-years eagerly dropped out of their push-ups, collapsing against the floor.

"Have any of you noticed Rin-san's computer?" she asked, crossing her arms.

The gym went silent.

Izuki was the first to break it, snorting loudly. "You mean that piece of shit held together by tape?"

Hyuga laughed next. "I don't know if you can even call it a computer, Coach!"

Kuroko did not speak, eyes closed.

Kagami made a face of confusion. "I hadn't really noticed... she usually just has her book thingy right? Is her computer that bad?"

Even Mitobe nodded.

"As most of you know-" Riko looked pointedly at Kagami. "-Rin-san's computer is all but useless. Earlier, when Kuroko-kun asked her about it, she became withdrawn. I'm going out on a limb to say this, but I don't think she can afford a new one."

Izuki and Hyuga stopped laughing.

"As Izuki-kun and Hyuga have _kindly_ pointed out, her current computer isn't really the best. She knows it, we know it, everyone knows it." Riko looked a little sad. "I could afford a computer, and the rest of us could-"

"How do you know that?" Koganei squinted suspiciously at her.

"I've read your files." she raised an eyebrow. "Who do you think I am?"

Koga scooted a few centimeters back.

"I looked hers over as well," Riko said, crouching down over her school bag and pulling out a manila folder. "While not necessarily poor, she's not going to be living a luxurious life, probably just hitting average. People like Kagami-kun, Kuroko-kun and I, all of us being only children, can afford nice things. Izuki-kun and Mitobe-kun aren't only children, but your families are well-off. Hers... isn't."

"So," Riko stuffed the folder back into her bag, getting on her feet. "Kuroko-kun suggested doing a fundraiser - we needed new uniforms anyways, so a laptop along with it wouldn't be too bad. And I am all for it. What about you guys?"

Izuki, for once, looked very serious. "Seirin can do it. After this, Reporter-san will be serene... maybe even Seirine."

Hyuga threw a basketball at him. "You've got my approval for this, Coach."

Koga glanced at Mitobe, who nodded silently. "We're in."

Fukuda, Furihata and Kawahara all nodded simultaneously. "There's no way we're missing out on something like this!"

Kagami opened his mouth to speak, but Kuroko elbowed him in the side. "Kagami-kun and I are going to participate, no matter what he says. Rin-san is in our class, so we are responsible for her."

The power forward and ace of Seirin grunted, elbowing Kuroko back. "I wasn't going to reject it, you idiot! Of course I'm going to help the kid. She can't do anythin' without us, so I ain't gonna ditch her!"

Riko looked over her team approvingly. _They're all softies, aren't they?_ "Alright, then we're going to have to figure out how we're going to play this. First of all, she can't find out. She's definitely humble and will try to shut us down, so we just have to do it behind her back. If she finds out about the fundraiser, which is inevitable, we'll play it off as a fundraiser for school uniforms. We'll surprise her on her birthday, and play it off as a birthday gift."

"When's her birthday?" asked Furihata.

Kagami piped in. "May 4th."

When the rest of the team looked skeptically at him, he turned red. "I-I listen, okay?!"

"Well, today is April 5th," Riko said, biting her lip. "so we have a month. We can definitely pull this off, you guys!"

* * *

I met Satsuki at Seirin Station at 4:00 exactly. Aomine loomed over her, disinterested in her mindless babble, mindlessly watching people filter in and out.

"Sorry if you were waiting!" I called to Satsuki and Aomine, the former looking excited, the latter looking tired.

Satsuki was unaffected. "No problemo, Rin-chan! Aomine-kun tagged along, like I thought he would. We should totally go to the mall, right? I need some new hair accessories, and I have this coupon for a 25% discount at this new store that opened up beside the cupcake shop for the grand opening sale! It's wonderful, so we can split it, okay? Aomine-kun wouldn't need it anyways..."

She continued talking, but it went in and out of my ears. Aomine had already started towards the street, his large frame creating a path in the flow of people for us to follow in.

"...and then, Sakurai-kun started apologizing like crazy! I felt really bad about it - I mean, it was all Aomine-kun's fault, not poor Sakurai-kun's - but he apologized for making me feel bad, and when I told him it was okay, he apologized for existing! Can you believe that?! I worry sometimes... I would tell him, but then he'd apologize for making me worry and then it'll never end!"

I wondered, for a moment, why Satsuki and Aomine were friends. Satsuki was a bright, happy person, with a bit of a motormouth, but a real sweetheart. She was talkative and friendly, a brilliant example of a social butterfly.

Aomine, on the other hand, was kind of intimidating - he only spoke when he had to - and wasn't exactly happy. A permanent scowl was all but glued on his face, and he glared at anyone that got in his way.

They were complete opposites.

Yet, somehow, Aomine was fiercely protective - not overprotective, but I hadn't known either of them for long, so I couldn't say for sure - of Satsuki. He had interrogated me alone, after pissing Satsuki off in order to arrange the meeting, to protect her feelings.

And Satsuki? She had stayed with him, though I'm sure he was quite a complicated person, who had probably put her through a lot of hardships throughout their years together.

A little smile grew on my face, unbeknownst to Satsuki and Aomine.

_I suppose they were just destined to be friends, weren't they?_

* * *

"We need to figure out what we'll be doing for the fundraiser." Riko said to her team, smoothing out a new piece of paper onto her clipboard. "We have about a month, but in that month, we have to raise enough money for a new laptop and eleven uniforms. A uniform costs about 1500 yen, so that would be about-"

"16,500 yen." Izuki murmured. When everyone looked at him quizzically, he looked away, cheeks tinted pink. "I'm good at math, okay?"

Riko scribbled down the digits. "Then a new laptop is about 42,000 yen. So altogether we would need-"

"58,500 yen." Izuki finished for her, ignoring the smirk from Hyuga.

"Why eleven uniforms?" Kagami asked suddenly. "There are only ten of us."

All of the second-years suddenly looked sad, and Riko closed her eyes. "...Kagami-kun, you'll find out later, so don't worry about it right now, alright?"

Kagami looked hesitant, but after a swift kick to the shin from Kuroko, he shut up. "G-Got it."

"So if the total we need is 58,500 yen, and there are eleven people here able for fundraising - including myself - we need to raise about 5319 yen each." Riko calculated, adding it to the sheet. "What sort of fundraiser should we do?"

Everyone looked thoughtful, but no one could come up with an immediate solution.

Surprisingly, Koganei was the one to make a suggestion. "M-Maybe each of us could do something that we're good at for a fundraiser."

Riko gripped her clipboard to her chest. "Do you have an example?"

His face reddened. "W-Well, I'm really good at making plamo, actually-"

"What the hell is a plamo?" Izuki asked, bluntly. "Never heard of it."

"I-It's like an action figure." Koganei tried to explain, shrinking into himself. "It's kind of embarrassing."

Riko coughed, lightly. "So you make action figures and Hyuga collects them. How cute."

"They're not action figures!" Hyuga tried to defend himself. "They're warlord figurines!"

Kuroko and Kagami covered snickers, making Hyuga glare at them. "Don't laugh!"

"Anyways!" Riko called, smacking her hand against her clipboard, calling everyone back to attention. "Koga can make these planos-"_  
_

"Plamo." Koga corrected, but was ignored.

"-for his fundraiser. Are we all in agreement that we will do small, personal fundraisers, for a goal for 5319 yen each?" Riko looked carefully at the faces of her team, but none of them seemed in opposition. "Alright, then our due date will be May 1st, so we can have the uniforms and computer ordered before her birthday. Don't forget, though, that the Interhigh will start in the month of May, so there's no time to slack off there either."

Everyone nodded as one. "Yes!"

* * *

Everyone in the basketball club had been sort of odd since Satsuki, Aomine and I had gone to the mall. Sometimes, practice would spontaneously be cancelled out of the blue, and I would have to find some way to occupy myself. The Interhigh started in May, and we had gotten the preliminaries tournament bracket a week into April.

Riko and I had gotten our hands on it before the guys had, and after learning the name of our first opponent, she left to go watch a practice game, leaving me in charge of the practice and with instructions to find out as much as I could through old footage of the team from last year.

The Interhigh functioned like any other tournament would. There were preliminaries - four for the prefecture of Tokyo. The top four teams of Tokyo would play against each other, and the top three teams from those four would go on to the Interhigh, which would have the best of the best, from all over Japan.

If during the preliminaries, we lost a single game, Seirin would be eliminated - no coming back.

Our first game was up against a team called Shinkyo Academy, on May 3rd.

Riko had me go through collections of videos, finding all sorts of information on Shinkyo Academy. I had to analyze their players, their technique, their strategies, along with the usual information I added up by myself - height, weight, personality, movement and style. After I finished this, she made me put together clips of each player, and maps of their strategies while the team practiced, so that we could show them off during breaks and downtime.

I had to research the new incoming players - Shinkyo's lineup was composed mostly of previous members, but there was one foreigner from Senegal that I had to look up. I made a mental note to mention him to Riko, so she could do some digging herself.

"I'm not the manager." I grumbled to her, but she simply laughed and told me to get back to work.

So I pretty much knew the Shinkyo team as well as I knew the Seirin one. And that had only taken about a day, since there wasn't that much footage to go through.

The day that the boys got their hands on the bracket, Riko hadn't showed up to practice. I had texted her during lunch that day about the Senegal player - Papa Mbaye Siki, I had learned, after searching the school's basketball team online and skimming through an article before class had started.

**_if u r going to shinkyos practice match, look out for their newest player. his name is papa mbaye siki and is a transfer from senegal. the team has gone from a middle-tier threat to significant with the addition of this player._**

After a moment, she replied.

**_ill watch out._**

I typed out a quick response.

**_I saw a pic of him on shinkyos website. height is 200 centimeters and weight is 87 kg. u cant miss him_**

She didn't respond, but I knew she had seen it. She was worried.

* * *

Riko skipped practice that day, making it to the last ten minutes. I had finished my analysis of the Shinkyo team, but that data was a year old. I wasn't sure how the addition of Papa Mbaye Siki had influenced the team.

The boys were all blabbing about how they would take on Shutoku High, an old school with a lot of athletic history, that had acquired a member of the Generation of Miracles - Midorima Shintaro.

I recognized the name. I had been the sports reporter at Inku Middle, so I had gone to many of the basketball games. Of course I had attended one against the Teiko basketball team, a group infamous for its skill at obliterating other teams to the point of despair.

I knew that I hated the Generation of Miracles more than _anything_, and that I was justified for that hatred in every way possible - especially after Nationals of third-year, _definitely_ after Nationals of third-year.

The Generation of Miracles, however, was a group of people that I would never forgive, not ever. I hated some part of Aomine, some part of Kise and even some part of Kuroko, but I did not hate _Aomine_, I did not hate _Kise_ (kind of) and I most certainly did not hate _Kuroko_. The Generation of Miracles, as a whole, would _never_ be forgiven, but as individuals, they were alright.

Anyways, I digress. Midorima Shintaro, if I recalled correctly, had been a tall, green-haired boy with spectacles. He had never failed to make a single shot, scoring countless three-pointers against the otherwise helpless Inku team.

Our captain, Iwasaki Tomokazu, had cried.

I blinked away the memories - Kazu's blotchy face had been the last I had seen of him after Nationals, and that was definitely a road I did not want to go down - zoning into the conversation.

Riko was handing her phone over to Hyuga, who flipped it open. "Look at this picture."

"T-This..." he stared at it for a moment, the team crowding around him. I didn't bother to look - I had seen Papa Mbaye Siki already on the website. Hyuga's face turned pink. "I-It's cute, but-"

Kuroko stared at the picture, captivated.

I made a face. "Is Papa Mbaye Siki really that fascinating?"

"Sorry," Riko looked slightly embarrassed, as Hyuga showed her the picture that she had left on her phone - a small cat surrounded by a pink background. "It's the next one."

Hyuga tapped a button, gasping. The rest of the team peered around him, everyone eager to get a look.

Riko's expression was grim. "This is Papa Mbaye Siki. 2 meters tall, and 87 kilograms."

I frowned. If she was just repeating information that I had already fed her, that meant that she had gained no notable information from the practice match. If she hadn't learned anything of significance, she should have sent me - I was certain that I would have been able to gather more information than she would.

However, the importance of that information was more than enough to make me hesitate. Yes, I was a sports reporter, but that's it - a reporter. With a look, I could gather information useful for a report.

Riko, on the other hand, was a trainer, a coach. With a look, she could gather information useful for a game.

If the only thing of importance that she had learned about Papa Mbaye Siki and Shinkyo was his height and weight, and that was the only thing that I had deemed important, other than his country of origin, then perhaps there was nothing more to him than that.

If height was all that he had going for him, then he was no threat to us. We had talent, skill and determination. He had nothing more than a couple centimeters.

"He's a transfer student from Senegal." she told them, looking slightly distraught.

"Senegal?" Hyuga repeated, squinting at the screen, as if willing it to reveal the true abilities of our next opponent. "He's huge! 2 meters!"

"Are they allowed to do that?" Koganei asked, looking very nervous.

Even Izuki seemed doubtful. "Senegal? Where _is_ Senegal?"

"Senegal is a country on the west coast of Africa," I said, matter-of-factly. I had briefly looked over the Wikipedia page for the country after finding out Papa Mbaye Siki's origins. "It's official language is French and there is an estimated population of 13 million-"

"He's just big." Kagami interrupted, looking very put-out. He was probably expecting all sorts of fabulous information about his next opponent - perhaps a player that could dunk from half-court.

I elbowed him in the side, to express my dislike of being interrupted. He was about to elbow me back - and probably completely knock me out, the guy was _huge_ in comparison to me, when Hyuga spoke.

"This Papa Mbaye..." he tried to repeat the name. "What was it?"

Tsuchida gave it an honest attempt. "Papanpa?"

"Papa Maybe." Koga corrected.

"Papa?" Izuki suddenly was given a burst of inspiration, pulling a notebook out of a fourth-dimensional pocket, scribbling down what was sure to be a bad pun. "Papaya Ito."

Everyone groaned, but I smothered a laugh.

Izuki pointed at me. "She laughed! Someone appreciates my jokes!"

"That was absolutely awful." I informed him, quickly covering my smile. "You think that's funny? You've _got_ to be joking."

Izuki high-fived me.

Hyuga looked like he was going to kill something. "Both of you, quit it!"

Riko sighed. "We're not getting anywhere with you guys not taking this seriously. Kuroko-kun, give him a nickname."

Izuki looked very put-out that he wasn't chosen to give the nickname. "I could've given him a good one, Coach."

Kuroko, however, took his new role as nickname-giver in stride. He took it very seriously, looking very thoughtful. "How about 'Dad' then?"

There was a moment of silence as the name sunk in.

Then I burst out laughing.

"What's with your terrible naming sense?" asked an irritated Koganei.

"Dad." inspiration hit Izuki and his infamous notebook appeared again. "Dad's company is a dud."

"Sick burn, Izuki-san."

"Thanks, Reporter-san!"

"That was lame." Hyuga said behind snickers. The whole team looked like they were having giggle fits - at Izuki's joke (less likely) or Kuroko's naming abilites (more likely), I wasn't sure.

Riko cleared her throat. "As for 'Dad', we're going to have to-"

"Don't call it lame." I snorted, bumping my shoulder against Hyuga's upper arm, at a disadvantage due to his superior height. "You're laughing too."

He tried to defend himself. "It was involuntary-"

"Hey, listen!" Riko shouted, stunning us all into silence.

I felt shame settle over me, like an unwelcome friend back after months of absence. Riko had always been so nice to me, one of my only friends at Seirin, allowing me to accompany her team to the matches and sit in on practice, even relying on me for heavy things like research on other teams.

And here I was, interrupting her as she tried to give a speech to her team, about their first opponents in the Interhigh tournament, which was mere weeks away.

I had been a burden all along, hadn't I?

She started talking about Dad more, but I couldn't focus.

Maybe that was why she had gone to the Shinkyo practice match... she couldn't trust my information. I had only been allowed to practices because she had to let me, Ichisada all but forcing her to let me in.

My face burned. I had assumed that she wanted to be friends. I hadn't had any friends when I had came here from Inku, all of my classmates going off to other schools in Tokyo. Even at Inku, I hadn't been the friendliest person, the only people remotely resembling friends had been the regulars of the basketball team and tennis teams.

I had probably unconsciously assumed that because I had been somewhat friends with the regulars at Inku, that I would automatically be friends with the regulars at Seirin.

I was such a fool.

A hand shocked me out of my thoughts. I turned around to see a slightly concerned Kuroko. "Are you alright?"

I blinked, trying to force back the blood that had risen to my face. "Y-Yes... I have to go." I hurried to the sidelines, grabbing my bag and stuffing my notebook inside.

Riko called out to me as I pushed open the gym doors. "Are you alright, Rin-san?"

I ignored her, hurrying away.

It'd be better if I stopped assuming things.

* * *

Inku Middle had been a place of mixed emotions for me. For the most part, it had been a mediocre, border-line pleasant three-years for me, until the end of third-year, when the world decided it did not like me.

My only real acquaintances had been limited to the regulars of the basketball team and the regulars of the tennis team, as my fellow Newspaper club members hadn't been too fond of me, since Isa had been quite a terror when she had attended, leaving a reputation that tainted mine.

Everyone on the basketball and tennis teams had been polite to me, excluding the anomaly: Kazu, the constantly-cheerful captain of the basketball team, who had encouraged me to participate in any way I could, whether I wanted to or not.

Out of everyone in that school, I guess he was my best friend, but he was the sort of person that was everyone's best friend. He had been persistent to antisocial me, doing his best to befriend everyone he possibly could.

"Wanna try a shot, Rin?" he would always ask during practice, where I would be hiding in the corner, numbly typing away at my laptop, the same one I still held onto during high school.

I wouldn't even glance up from my computer, all but ignoring him entirely. "We're not friends, Iwasaki-san, so please don't call me by my first name. And you have the Nationals coming up soon, you don't have time to waste on me. You should be getting your team ready. Our first game is against Teiko."

He grinned, his shadow falling over me easily. "I do have to get revenge for the last two years where they floored us, don't I? If you helped us out with your crazy looking powers, that would be pretty handy, now wouldn't it?"

"Please don't call my inferences 'crazy looking powers'."

"Aww, don't be so cold, Rin!"

Kazu was a likeable guy. He was always cheerful, a smile plastered to his face constantly. He wasn't a particular skilled player, his leadership and popularity the real reason for his position as captain. We both knew that there was no way that we would come even close to beating Teiko, but neither of us would dare admit it.

If I did, that would be the end of the team's hope - I was the one who knew everything, with my 'crazy looking powers', as Kazu called it. If Kazu admitted it, then that too would bring the team down - if your leader gives up hope, you will as well.

But Nationals came and, just as we believed, Teiko destroyed us, obliterating us entirely, with a score of 145 - 7. In desperation, Kazu had sunk a beautiful three, but it had been futile. We had all known that we would be destroyed, we just didn't want to admit it.

Kazu had cried.

He had been the only person that, without hesitation, I would consider a friend. I did not dare shed a tear myself, instead watching blankly as he curled up on the floor of the locker room. The other players filtered out quickly, leaving me alone with a crying boy.

I had both been thankful and furious at that - I wasn't sure how to speak around others, but they dare leave him alone? What sort of teammates were they?

"Iwasaki-san." I said, quietly, pathetically, unable to do anything but watch as his shoulders shook on the floor.

He did not respond.

"Iwasaki-san." I spoke a little louder.

"I-I know, Rin." his voice was choked with tears. He turned around to look at me, his eyes red, snot dripping from his nose. "I know it's a game. Just... Just leave me alone for now. I'll see you... I'll see you tomorrow."

I hesitated.

"_Please_." he had pleaded at me.

I left.

Iwasaki Tomokazu did not come back to school. The rest of the basketball team pestered me about it, and eventually I gave in, found out where he lived and knocked on his door.

A woman in black answered. "Y-Yes?"

She looked eerily like Kazu, I could remember thinking, comparing her sandy hair to his, the blue of his eyes to her's. "I'm looking for Tomokazu Iwasaki-san. He hasn't been at school for a few days and the basketball team and I were getting worried."

The woman burst into tears.

After a bit of questioning, so did I.

Kazu didn't go home for hours after the game, and when he finally did leave the stadium, he did not make it home. The morning after the Teiko VS Inku game, he was found in the back alley behind the stadium.

I do not think I have to tell you in what state he was found.

When I went to school the next day, I resigned from the Newspaper Club. School was ending in two weeks anyways - I would be long gone by then. Most of my classmates were going to Too Academy, and I, too, had submitted an application. I did not hesitate to retract my application and apply to Seirin, a closer school, where I knew that no one was headed.

I did not need friends.

It was only a burden in the end.

* * *

**oh my god i do not know what happened at the end there**

**it kind of happened**

**and now im sad**

* * *

**Question:**

**what do you think of knb season 2 lmao even though most of it was just yosen vs seirin**

* * *

**thanks for reading**

**though i probably made u sad**

**since im sad**

**:(**

**LeoInuyuka**


	6. The Meaning of Flowers

Chapter 6

The Meaning of Flowers

* * *

**Reviewer Quote:**

**petition to make kohi the main character  
-confusedwithacock**

* * *

**The second half of this was written to Ayano's Happiness Theory.**  
**The second half starts at when Rin skips school lmao #rebel**

* * *

The day after Riko came back with information on Shinkyo Academy - information that she was just repeating, as I had already provided it - I excused myself from practice.

"I won't be attending practice today." I told Riko, barely managing to hold onto a straight face. I had gone to her classroom to inform her, deciding that sending texts was too friendly, that I would have to express my understanding of the end of our friendship through personal presence.

The day before, I had come to a conclusion that no one would ever want to be my friend, not since Kazu, and trying was a futile attempt. I would focus on my writing, and on schoolwork, and that was it.

The only friend I had, and ever would have, was Kazu, and he was dead.

Riko looked slightly concerned - _lies_, my mind whispered at me, curling around my thoughts darkly, dangerously. "Are you alright, Rin-san?"

"I'm fine, Aida-san." I lied, shifting my school bag. "Excuse me."

* * *

I stayed with Kohi throughout the duration of practice that day. I had readily forgiven her for what she all too gleefully referred to as the '_Oh Kohi' _Incident.

She immediately noticed that there was something wrong with me and interrogated me accordingly. "What the fuck did those crazy basketball nuts _do_ to you?"

I caved immediately. I know, after the whole breakdown and everything about not having friends and all, but Kohi had an unnatural way of making me talk. She reminded me a bit of Isa in that manner. I blabbed to her about everything, crying as I talked about Kazu and the middle school Nationals, successfully making everyone in the Newspaper Club room uncomfortable.

Thankfully, Ichisada was out, otherwise I'd probably be A) thrown out or B) permanently embarrassed.

After hearing my story, Kohi seemed far from amused. "Are you fuckin' kidding me?"

I sniffled. "W-What?"

She threw her hands up in the air, as if that would somehow convey to me my own level of idiocy. "You really don't see?! These people are like your family, kid. You can't just go around ditchin' 'em at every corner."

"I researched you." I admitted, crossing my arms. "You were the previous basketball team reporter, but you aren't anymore. If they were like your family, why did you ditch them?"

She raised an eyebrow, as if she had been expecting that. Knowing her, she probably did. "Well, after Teppei got sent to the ol' healing hut, I got in a bit of a tussle with Ichisada about not filling out any reports or something. So I was booted out of there real quick."

"Why did you stop writing?" I wondered. This conversation had gone 180 on her, going from me to her. I made a mental note to find out who this 'Teppei' was.

Kohi shrugged. "Teppei was like the only interestin' thing there, and then he got all broken up and so I got bored."

I doubted that was the reason, but didn't question her.

"Anyways, don't go on changin' the subject." she accused, pointing at me. "I want you to go back to practice right now. You're actin' like Zuko when he betrayed Iroh to rejoin the Fire Nation. You're gonna regret it sooner or later, so you might as well regret it now."

Her reasoning, as always, made zero sense. "They don't like me, and I can't have friends-"

"What am I supposed to be then?" she demanded, mock-offended. "Your sidekick? I ain't no Robin, and you certainly ain't no Batman!"

I looked towards the girls in the Celebrity Gossip department, who did nothing in the clubroom but make eyes at Ichisada (which is like ew no) and whisper at each other. "Talking to her is pointless." I told them. "Nothing she says makes sense. It's like listening to someone talk in French, but only having an English-Japanese dictionary."

Kohi rolled her eyes. "Rin, so this is how it is, okay? The basketball team is kind of like your family. Of course, your family is going to have arguments. Of course, your family is going to disagree. Of course, your family will have misunderstandings. You just gotta sort it all out and be willing to admit it when you're a blockhead - which is pretty much all the time."

"I'm not a blockhead." I was quick to defend myself.

"That's not the point!" she groaned, slamming her head against her desk. "You're really hopeless with people, aren't you? At the beginning, you were pretty talkative and like a four on the social scale, but now that we're gettin' to know you, you're actually like a two, aren't you?"

"Please don't ask me to degrade myself to a two."

"Kohi-san, Kobayashi-san." a sharp voice called, appearing with the painfully-characteristic slamming open of the door.

I cringed. _Caught._

Kohi closed her eyes in annoyance. "What the actual _hell _do you want? Rin and I were having a heart-to-heart, you insensitive fuck."

Ichisada made his entrance stoically, the girls in the Celebrity Gossip department squealing at his 'cool' arrival. "Shouldn't you be working instead?"

Seriously, Ichisada was cause of like 97% of my problems at this school.

Kohi made some sort of strangled noise that Ichisada seemed to take as an affirmative.

"And you, Kobayashi-san." I flinched as his sharp eyes narrowed further at me. He seemed to disapprove of me more than he did of Kohi, which was really saying something. But he did seem to hate everyone, though Kohi had a secret theory that he liked her. Highly unlikely. "You should currently be at basketball practice."

I opened my mouth to say something - probably a pathetic excuse, I'm sure - when I was saved by the local Canadian goddess.

"Rin-dearest is currently being confined by the bloody shackles of womanhood." Kohi announced, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, as if that would protect me from the silent and cool rage of Ichisada. "She came to me for help, and like the Samaritan I am, I assisted her immediately, offering her refuge from the uncomfortable effects of the warm spring weather."

I was confused. What on earth were the 'bloody shackles of womanhood'?

Ichisada seemed equally puzzled, but dealt with his confusion much more smoothly than I had. "And, pray tell me, just what are the 'bloody shackles of womanhood'? And why does she require refuge from the uncomfortable effects of the warm spring weather?"

"Her period." Kohi said coolly, unaffected as my face burned redder than even Kagami's hair.

Ichisada suddenly looked frazzled, his usually expressionless face suddenly a furious red. "I-I, umm-"

Kohi had known, all along, what Ichisada's true weakness was. I could have died happily in that moment. The insensitive prick was scared of the menstrual cycle.

"Have _you_, Ichisada Hideaki, ever had a period?" Kohi continued her calm interrogation, looking as if she felt completely comfortable talking about this. Knowing her, she probably did.

He looked horrified. "No! Of course not-"

"Then you simply cannot understand the uncomfortable effects of the warm spring weather." Kohi looked away, as if disappointed. "I shall not attempt to explain - that would be tramautizing on your poor mind, my dear club president, so I shall leave you be. However, I am protecting our sweet little Rin from the horrible curse of womanhood. Will you grant her amnesty for her presence today?"

With everyone's eyes on him, Ichisada could only dumbly nod.

Kohi clapped her hands together. "Great! Now can I have enough money for Rin and I to get a coffee from the lunchroom? I'm absolutely parched."

Ichisada handed her his wallet, still dumbstruck.

"Thanks." she blew him a kiss, grabbing my wrist. "Let's bounce, Rin."

_When I grow up_, I thought, as she dragged me over the threshold of the clubroom, _I want to be like Kohi._

* * *

The next day, I attended practice as usual. Kohi's words had gotten to me (well, she more or less threatened me if I tried to skip again, so I had to).

They probably didn't hate me.

Probably.

Kazu's laughter resounded in my mind. _Ain't nobody who could hate you, Rin! You're too much of a clutz - they wouldn't be able to contain their laughter at you!_

Riko bounced over to me at the start of practice, blubbering and crying about being sorry. "I'm sorry if I upset you in any way! I don't know how to talk to people!"

_Rin doesn't know how to talk to anybody... I can remember her introduction in class! She was a s-s-s-s-stutterin' mess!_

I awkwardly patted her on the back. "I-It's okay?"

_The same as always, huh?_

Hyuga smacked me upside the head. "No more running off like that. You're making everyone worry."

_He seems alright... kinda like your sis, dontcha think?_

Kuroko nodded, elbowing me in the side. "It's my job to disappear, Rin-san, not yours."

_Oh, you gotta like this one. Wasn't he on that killer Teiko team?_

A hand ruffled my hair, my ponytail knocked askew. "No need to get your panties in a twist, kiddo." Kagami said, with a grin.

_You'll be fine, Rin._

"I'm older than you." I told him with a scowl. "Don't talk down at me, you grade-school student."

"I'm not a grade-school student! You're a midget!"

"Overgrown kindergartner."

"Old lady."

"Did you get kicked off of Sesame Street?"

"Did you get kicked out of the senior citizen home?"

Kuroko pried us apart. "Please don't kill each other."

I scoffed, looking away. "As if."

Secretly, I was pleased. I had been an immature brat, despite my own words, and Kagami had treated me as if nothing had happened. Riko and Hyuga had easily forgiven me, and Kuroko had attempted a joke with that dry humor of his.

Suddenly, I was yanked into a tight embrace. "Kobayashi-san, I was _Rin_-capable of supporting myself without you during practice yesterday-"

"Izuki, leave the poor girl _be!_" Koganei cried, thankfully prying the point guard away from me. "And stop making those jokes - no one thinks they're funny!"

I quickly collected myself. Izuki was such a weirdo sometimes.

Izuki managed to look offended. "_I _think they're funny and that's all that really matters, isn't it?"

Hyuga scowled. "Not if we have to hear it."

As I watched the two of them get into their usual banter, I sighed. They had yanked me back into the heart of things, hadn't they?

_Just like me, huh, Rin? Makin' you socialize! That's good though... you need it!_

"Ah, Rin-san, don't cry at Izuki-senpai's bad jokes." Kuroko drawled, pulling out a handkerchief - what century did he think we lived in, anyway? - and handing it to me.

I blinked, reaching up to touch my face, surprised to find it wet. "I'm sorry, allergies." I lied, drying my face as well as I could.

The team allowed me to lie to myself.

I returned the handkerchief to Kuroko. "Thank you."

_I-I'm going to try this whole friendship thing out, Iwasaki-san... Kazu. _I thought, ignoring the way my eyes stung almost accusingly and the way that they avoided looking at me, to spare me the ounce of pride I had left. _You wanted me to have friends. And that's what I'll have._

* * *

The next few weeks were the equivalent of Hell. Riko constantly needed my input on data she had collected on our future opponents or she needed a board set up with some of Shinkyo's old plays drawn up on it.

Let me say now that I am no artist.

No one, not even Riko, had questioned my little 'diva moment' as Kohi had cheerfully dubbed it. I was grateful for that.

Something weird was definitely going on in the club. Some practices, someone would be gone - Koganei one day, Izuki the next. I couldn't help but notice it. When I asked Riko, she shrugged and dismissed it as family issues.

Family issues. Yeah, with every single member on the team.

One day, Koga's bag ripped, displaying dozens upon dozens of plamos - action figures. When I asked him what on earth they could possibly be for, Hyuga immediately covered for the stammering second-year, claiming that they had been his warlord figurines that the jack-of-all-trades was repairing for him. I had been doubtful, but let it slide.

Something was most definitely going on.

* * *

On May 1st, Riko collected all of the money from her team.

Koganei had, surprisingly, been the one to go above and beyond, raising 10,000 yen, in comparison to his objective of 5319 yen. He had done his little action figurines, which he had sold online for an impressive profit. Who knew that so many people were interested in those?

Hyuga had had to pull off all sorts of tricks in order to raise his 5319 yen. He excelled above all others (excluding Riko herself) in languages class, so tutored others for an abysmal price. That hadn't profited well, so he took on extra chores at home, actually taking on a job in his father's barber shop, cutting hair. He earned 1000 yen a haircut, so it hadn't taken long to pull together a solid 7000 yen, all of which he eagerly put forth.

Izuki Shun, bless his soul, had barely scraped together the 5319 yen. He ended up writing to the local newspaper - not the school one, thank god - where he submitted terrible jokes for 100 a piece. He had to do a weekly section with five jokes each, in order to raise 5000 yen, but got the remaining 319 from his parents, who had pitied him. The joke section hadn't been too hard to think up, but the jokes took forever to get approved of, since his jokes were so awful.

Kagami simply forked over 5319 yen of his own expenses, offering no explanation. When prompted by the others, he refused to answer. And that was that.

Kuroko had volunteered at the local kindergarten and libraries, assisting in demonstrations with handicrafts - his secret skill. He was paid lavishly for his work, and gave every last coin to the effort. 13,000 yen made it into Riko's envelope, and she barely managed to contain her shock.

Furihata, Fukuda and Kawahara had worked together, pulling together their necessary 15,957 yen by working hard - the trio spent hours doing various household tasks. Their specialties now included babysitting, gardening, raking, dusting, mopping, sweeping and cooking, and they weren't necessarily proud of that.

Mitobe and Tsuchida too, had worked as a team, babysitting Mitobe's siblings for cash along with Tsuchida's girlfriend's siblings. A month's work had paid off to their total of 10,638 yen.

Riko had asked her dad for money. And then he gave her money. Hyuga gave her a questioning look. "My dad will do whatever I ask." she shrugged, absently.

Izuki added up the digits quickly. "That's 72,552 yen. Our goal was 58,500. So, uhh, we're over by..." he thought for a moment. "We're over by 14,052 yen."

Riko clapped her hands, depositing the envelope into her bag. "Perfect. So on May 5th, we'll have not only the uniforms, but also her present. Good job everyone. I'm surprised that you all managed to scrape it all together."

Kagami looked serious. "If she uses that computer anymore, she's going to get electrocuted and die."

Izuki was struck by a thought. "If she uses that computer anymore, she's going to get electro-_cuter_."

Hyuga almost threw him out the window. "Would you cut it out?!"

Izuki proceeded to go through a practice list of 'cut it out' jokes, as he had heard the phrase countless times from the captain. "I thought that was pretty _sharp_."

"I will kill you."

"I guess your senses haven't _dulled, _Hyuga."

"...I'm warning you."

"I dunno, these jokes were pretty _cutting-edge_."

"That's it, Izuki, go run four laps."

"Dammit."

* * *

I didn't question the team's oddities as May crept in. The Interhigh was coming up so it was probably just nerves. After all, one loss could knock us out for the rest of spring, and that'd be hella disappointing, after how far we had come with preparations.

"If I have to see another three-pointer by Tanimura Yusuke," I said, laying ontop of Izuki's desk. "I think I might explode." We were all in Takeda-sensei's classroom, watching reruns of the same footage of Shinkyo Academy. I had literally seen this video so many times I could reenact it, blindfolded.

Hell, I could reenact it if I was _actually _blind.

"Well, Yusuke isn't Yuse-less."

I couldn't help but smile, bumping Izuki's waiting fist with my own.

"Focus!" Riko barked.

Intimidated, Izuki rolled me off his table. "Damn."

"The game is tomorrow!" she reminded us. "You have to f-o-c-u-h-s. Focus!"

"That's not how you spell focus, Coach." Hyuga muttered under his breath, but the short girl heard her.

"S-Shut up, Hyuga-kun!" she crossed her arms over her chest, puffing out her cheeks. "I got 2nd on exams last year and you didn't, so shush!"

I was convinced that we were all easily distracted. But that was the word, wasn't it? _All_? Like we were all together? As friends?

_Is this what you were trying to show me, Kazu?_

* * *

Riko stared at me. "What do you mean you will be missing the game tomorrow?"

I fidgeted slightly. I had caught her at the end of practice, just as the boys were filtering out of the gym. I had been hoping to be a bit more discreet, but clearly, that wasn't happening.

Izuki poked his head back in the gym. "You're not coming tomorrow?"

The team started back in, loudly voicing their protests.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If you don't come, whose going to write an amazing article about me?"

"Koganei, no one would write an article about you."

"Yeah, you're probably the reason that she's skipping."

"Shut up you guys!"

Riko's expression flashed concern. "A-Are you still upset about the other day? I-I, umm, I don't know what to do, but I'm sorry-"

I sighed, shaking my head. I had wanted to avoid this. "Riko-san, it's nothing like that. I just have something to do tomorrow that I..." my shoulders hung. "...I've put it off for too long."

She pursed her lips. "If you can't make it, that's alright. Try and catch the end, at least, alright?"

I nodded. "Thank you, Riko-san."

* * *

Kuroko moved aside so that Rin could walk past him, blue eyes following her form as she went. She wasn't upset at them anymore - perhaps, however, the correct way to say would be to say that she wasn't upset at _herself_ anymore.

Kagami, the big oaf, was hovering behind Kuroko's shoulder. "Are you sure we should let her off on her own?"

Kuroko hesitated.

Rin hadn't been okay recently. She would get distracted, staring over his shoulder in the middle of a conversation, trailing off as she spoke. Once, he had caught her laughing to herself in an empty hallway.

"I think..." he said slowly, ignoring the way that Kagami jumped, having forgotten or dismissed his presence. "I think Rin-san needs this. No need to worry, Kagami-kun."

Even if Kagami was oblivious to all of the oddities that Rin had displayed in the past weeks, he wasn't a complete idiot. "Are you sure?"

Kuroko whirled around, adjusting the strap of his sports bag. She'd be fine. "Why are you so worried, Kagami-kun? Didn't I tell you that having a crush on Rin-san would make practices awkward?"

Kagami, as Kuroko knew he would, turned a furious red, immediately denying the accusation. "That's not it at all!"

* * *

I didn't go to school at all the next day.

I got a text from Kohi inquiring as to 'where the fuck' I was, but I ignored it, leaving my phone behind at home.

Mom, bless her, hadn't blinked when I walked into the kitchen at eleven, dressed in a spring dress with my hair pulled back into pigtails. "Do you want breakfast, Rin?"

"No, thank you." I said, brushing past her, flashing a smile as I swept through the side door. "Don't wait up for me."

* * *

I took three trains to the Yamanashi Prefecture, which took about two hours to do. I had left everything at home - my phone, money, everything - excluding my bus and train passes.

I didn't want any distractions.

Not on that day.

Along the way, I picked up flowers outside of the station - a large, ugly bouquet composed of purple hyacinth, striped carnations, a few irises, sweet pea and a single dark red rose in full bloom. I was no flower-arranger, but I doubted the appearance mattered - it was the meaning that did.

Yamanashi Central Cemetery was a place that I had never been before - I had considered going many times, but I had never gathered the gall to do so.

It looked as a cemetery should - high black iron gates, with fencing that seemed to go on forever in each direction. I had asked the graveskeeper for directions and he had eagerly given them - usually people knew where they were going, so he was glad for the company, as short as it was.

It took about ten minutes to find the right one, but when I did, I was unsurprised to find it clean and shining - there was no way that it could have possibly been filthy.

I stared at it for a long time.

The birds sang at me from a tree that cast a long shadow over me, dropping leaves that swirled in the same wind that kicked my skirt around. My pigtails slapped at the back of my neck. A red ladybug crawled over the top of the white marble.

The words of the inscription stared blankly at me.

_Iwasaki Tomokazu_  
_Beloved Son and Friend_  
_'Happiness is a curious thing.'_

"Not funny, Kazu." I told the stone, lowering myself to a cross-legged position on the ground. "Dragging me here. I don't like participating and you know it."

I imagined what the area had looked like almost a year prior, during the summer, when Nationals had passed. The dirt must have been freshly overturned, the smell of the earth more prominent than it was now. Perhaps that tree that cast such a long shadow hadn't even been there - maybe Kazu's mother had had it planted, to keep him company.

Or maybe that tree was Kazu, made of all molecules and atoms that had once made up my friend.

But now, that dirt was stagnant, grass shooting out of it. A few weeds sprouted up quietly near the base of the headstone, the yellow buds of the dandelion waving at me brightly as if happy to see me. The morning dew still lingered, clinging to the grass and I could feel it soaking into my dress.

I wasn't sure what to say. I felt like he was watching me curiously, bright blue eyes peering into me in that 'I know everything you're thinking' manner.

"I brought you flowers." I said suddenly, speaking for the sole purpose of filling the silence. I set them down in front of the grave. "It's still all wrapped up in plastic and I don't think it's biodegradable so I think this is technically littering."

I could practically hear his laughter. _Of course, that's what you'd worry about, isn't it?_

"Of course I'd worry about it!" I harrumphed, brushing some excess petals from my skirt. "That poor graveskeeper is probably going to have to clean that up later and I've just given him more work. He was so nice..."

Blue eyes curled up at the corners. _You worry too much._

I raised an eyebrow in return. "Well, clearly I have reason to, after that crazy stunt you pulled off."

Laughter. _S-sorry about that. One thing's for sure... I won't be doing that again._

My throat closed. "O-Obviously!"

_Say, Rin..._ his laughter faded, and he took on that unusually serious tone he got only when playing. _Are you alright?_

"I'm fine, Kazu." I brushed my bangs aside, blinking away slightly blurred vision. "I'm fine."

_Whatever you say..._ he sounded skeptical, but changed the subject accordingly. _Now, tell me about that fancy-dancy school you go to. You joined the Newspaper Club there, didn't you?_

"Oh, Seirin?" my smile softened. "Oh, everyone is wonderful. At first, I was a little hesitant about people after you-"

_You do suck at making friends_, he agreed.

I turned red. "Don't interrupt! But I think I'm making some good friends there." I went on to tell him about Kagami and Kuroko's light-and-shadow partnership (they thought I didn't know about it, but I did), and about Izuki's sick puns and Hyuga's clutch personality. I told him about how Mitobe didn't talk, but how that was okay because Koganei always knew what he was saying. I spoke about the first-year trio and Tsuchida and his girlfriend and Riko was the only one who knew that I could figure out everything about them with a look.

Kazu was a bit put-out at that. _You let them use your crazy looking powers and not us? I thought we were friends, Rin!_

My lip wobbled as I said the practiced line. "Please don't call my inferences 'crazy looking powers'."

He laughed. _Aww, don't be so cold, Rin!_

For a moment, we said nothing, reveling in the silence.

Then he smiled at me, that same smile that I wish _I wish_ wasn't gone. _Don't think I don't know what those flowers mean, Rin._

"I have no idea what you're talking about." came my automatic response.

_Don't be sorry!_ he told me, his voice sounding like he was right beside me. _I didn't know you thought of me as such a good friend._

My eyes welled with tears. "Please don't."

_This isn't goodbye -_ a bird trilled at me - _of course it isn't!_

I closed my eyes. "Kazu-"

_And I love you too._

The wind whistled a final time, tugging lightly at my pigtails as it went, pulling my tears along in a last dance. When I opened my eyes, I was alone.

The tree cast a shadow that now seemed sinister over me and the red ladybug that had not yet completed its trek across what seemed like, to him, an impossibly expansive stone. I reached out with my finger outstretched, intending for the small bug to crawl on.

Frightened, he threw himself off of the stone and took flight into the air, flittering away as quickly as his wings would take him.

After a minute, I stood up, brushing off the water droplets that had remained from morning dew. I pretended that yes, all of the water had been from the grass, and yes, some of it had miraculously gotten on my cheeks.

And then I walked back to the station, picking up a final flower as I did.

A yellow zinnia.

* * *

**ugh im sad still. ****why am i writing sad stuff**

**anyways, here are the meanings of the flowers that she had mentioned:**

**purple hyacinth - I am sorry  
striped carnation - I wish I could be with you  
iris - your friendship means so much to me  
sweet pea - goodbye; thank you for a lovely time  
a single rose in full bloom - i still love you  
yellow zinnia - daily remembrance **

**and omg can i just say that this was a sibling relationship. ****they didn't wanna do the do. ****they were in middle school?**

**anyways, ill be back to canon next chapter. i wanted a short rin interlude to explain why she didn't have any friends**

**but this isn't the last of iwasaki tomokazu. i mean, yes, he is dead, but he will be brought up again in later chapters**

**i didnt do all this for nothin**

* * *

**Question:**

**did you like kazu  
****for like the three seconds he was alive oh my god**

* * *

**Leave a review**

**plz**

**pls**

**please**

**por favor**

**idk anymore ways to say please oh my god**

**LeoInuyuka**


	7. EXTRA: The Newspaper Club (1)

EXTRAS: The Newspaper Club 1

* * *

**Reviewer Quote:**

**t just kinda hit me out of nowhere like  
what if kohi was actually yuni from the truth of the sky reborn into the knb world  
only this time she doesnt remember her past life/lives  
and what if ichisada was fran  
askdjcaskdcbadfh  
its all a conspiracy  
or im just fucking stupid but whatever**

**-Eurwen de Vrill**

* * *

**This chapter was written by me, with all of the extra ideas coming from confusedwithacock, one of the funniest people in this universe, so yeah  
but she really sucks at updating**

* * *

"Ichisada, do you see this baby?"

"...Kohi-san, why do you have a baby?"

"Don't ask unimportant questions. Now, do you see the staircase?"

"Yes, I see the stairs. But, whose baby is that-?"

"Hold the baby, Ichisada."

"I don't want to hold the-"

"Put the baby on the stairs."

He did.

"What do you see now, Ichisada?"

"A tragedy waiting to happen."

"Actually, it's a _step-child_."

"You're a fucking idiot. Put the baby back."

"Did you say baby back?"

"Yes...?"

"As in baby back ribs? I'm starving."

"Get _out_."

* * *

Rin had only gone to the Newspaper Club for one purpose and one purpose only: deliver her week's article.

She hadn't expected the clubroom to have the lights switched off and completely empty, aside from a single girl sitting at Ichisada's desk, laptop propped up in front of her, illuminating her face.

"Kohi, what are you doing?" Rin was all but done with Kohi's shit by now. "Turn the lights on-"

"I was eyebrowsing, Rin."

"...what?"

"Come look."

Rin obliged, slowly crossing the dark room to take a peek at Kohi's screen.

A Google search was open, displaying various pictures of eyebrows.

"Is that Kagami-san's...?" Rin shook her head. "How long were you waiting to do this, Kohi?"

"A while."

* * *

Riko had dragged Rin out with Izuki and Hyuga to the mall. Rin had been rather hesitant, but with some words of encouragement (force) from Riko, she had decided to go.

_"I need to buy some training equipment, so Hyuga-kun is going to carry everything, but he didn't want to go alone so Izuki-kun is coming."_

_"Why do you need me?"_

_"You're going to keep Izuki-kun company." _

_"I don't know what you're planning."_

_"Nothing!"_

So the two of them were sitting awkwardly on a bench outside of a training store, where Riko was arguing heartily with Hyuga over discounts.

The tension was solid.

"You want to get a drink?" Izuki blurted, feeling as if the silence had gone on long enough.

Rin nodded.

The two of them awkwardly made their way over to a vending machine, where Izuki quickly scanned the titles of the drinks - not with his Eagle Eye, because that was _not_ how it worked, thank you very much.

"Tea seems like all they have," he said with a slight frown. He liked coffee better - especially in coffee jelly - but he would settle for tea. "You want hot or cold?"

"Cold." Rin immediately replied. "My, uhh, _friend _in the Newspaper Club had a hot tea from a vending machine last time, and she burned her tongue."

Inspiration struck Izuki as he bent to retrieve their drinks. "Was she in... T-Pain?"_  
_

"Izuki-san, even I don't find that funny."

He scribbed it down in his notebook.

* * *

"Ichisada, ask me if the abominable snowman called."

He lowered his glasses slightly. "I don't want to be dragged into _another_ one of your jokes after the baby-"

"Ugh, just ask."

He caved. "H-Has the abominable snowman called?"

"Not yeti."

"...go _away_."

"That was the last one, I swear."

"I don't care!"

* * *

"Oi, Ichisada." Kohi called from her desk.

The boy glanced over, nose wrinkling in distaste. Her feet were propped up on her desk, and she had long since discarded her shoes on the floor, along with her socks. "What now?"

"If you could name your kids anything, what would you name them?" she asked absently, watching intensely as she wiggled her toes. Chipped rainbow nail polish glinted in the dully-lit room.

He set down his book, careful to dog-ear the page. He'd hate to lose his place in his manga. The titans were about to take over Shinganshina. He mulled over the question for a moment. "I like Western names-"

"Catherine is a really good Western name, though I doubt you can pronounce it with your crazy Japanese accent." Kohi interrupted with a mock-offended sniff.

He decided that ignoring her was a much-safer route for his sanity and her safety. "-so for a girl, probably Elicia. For a boy, I liked the name 'Calem'."

Kohi snorted in casual response. "I played Pokemon X, Ichi-dearest, you can't fool me."

His face flushed, giving him away. "T-That's not it at all!"

"Who knew you'd be a gamer?" she opened one of the drawers at her desk, digging around for a moment. She pulled out a 3DS, which was still on - he cringed at her blatant waste of battery life, how disrespectful - and opened it with a practiced flick of the wrist. "I always preferred Pokemon Ranger. The extra missions were brilliant."

Ichisada grunted in an acknowledgement of her skill. "I never finished it - I couldn't get past the boss battle at the end."

"Entei, Suicune and Raikou are pretty killer." she nodded. "It took me a try, but I got it in the end."

His forehead creased slightly. "How did you do it?"

Her eyes flickered up from the game. He knew they were brown, but in the dying light of day, they looked almost green. "I am prodigious, of course."

* * *

**oh my god im laughing so hard, that ending can be interpreted however you want**

**this was just a bunch of extras that Kohi's co-creator, confusedwithacock, came up with (except the last one im dying seriously call an ambulance) so i decided that id compile them into a big chapter**

**i love ichisada and kohi they're the otp**

**im like 5000 words into the next REAL chapter, meh dont rush me**

**also, lmao i almost forgot: the cover is gorgeous, isn't it? It was done by Hachikonohime, link on my profile to the art posted on deviantart. I love it so much, omg**

**also omg i have so much to say - i put a new poll (same question though) on my profile, so that I can have a more accurate viewpoint of yours, since you've gotten to see how complex of a character Rin is**

* * *

**Question:**

**what was ur interpretation of the last extra oh my god**

* * *

**Leave a review**

**also tell me if u understood what the fuck was going on in the last extra**

**im going to pee laughing oh my god**

**LeoInuyuka**


	8. Rin's Birthday

Chapter 7

Rin's Birthday

* * *

**Reviewer Quote:**

**Kohi for president please. - shiningiris**

**woah i wonder who confusedwithacock is they sound super cool wow everyone should go read their stories cause confusedwithacock is such an amazing person wow (but leo is hella bUT NOT AS HELLA AS CONFUSEDWITHACOCK HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE THAT COOL)  
-confusedwithacock**

* * *

Rin arrived between the third and fourth quarter. She had quietly opened the door and perched herself on the edge of the bench, but Riko had noticed regardless.

_Everyone_ had noticed.

The first-year's cheeks were flushed - she had rushed to the gymnasium, that Riko was sure of - and one of her pigtails was falling out. But that wasn't the reason that the team's attention was on her.

Her eyes were red as if she had been crying, but there was a large smile on her face. Riko swallowed. _Was this the same girl who hadn't known how to interact with people just days before?_

She bumped Kuroko's shoulder as she sat down beside him, offering that wide smile. "Hey."

Riko was horrified. Who was this girl and what had she done with Rin?

But Kuroko wasn't surprised, responding with a small smile of his own. "Hi."

Koganei bumped Izuki. "I guess you weren't too far off when you were makin' the moves back in the beginnin', don't ya think, Izuki?"

Izuki was hiding his face in his jersey. "Don't say embarrassing things, Koga!"

Riko pleasantly noted that his ears were red.

* * *

"So what's the score?" I asked Kuroko, scanning over our team. Everyone was giving me weird looks - I dismissed it as my late arrival.

Kuroko didn't look at me. "It's on the scoreboard."

"Seirin - 50. Shinkyo - 38." I read, obediently. I smiled at my team. "You guys have really been killing it without me, haven't you?"

Kagami 'hmph'-ed. "Of course we were! Dad is the only guy we have to keep an eye on... and I'm getting closer and closer to blocking his shot!"

* * *

After Kagami spoke, he was dealt the full blunt of Kobayashi's smile."That's wonderful, Kagami-san. I'm very impressed by how high you're jumping. I knew that you guys would have nothing to worry about against this team."

He almost collapsed. _Kobayashi smiling... was definitely weird._

"Quit it, Kobayashi." he muttered, scooting a bit further away from her and closer to Izuki. "You're weirding us out."

Izuki immediately leapt on the opportunity, just like Kagami knew he would. "Reporter-san doesn't need to _quit_... it's happiness that she _emits_."

Kobayashi laughed.

She honest-to-god threw back her head and laughed.

Kagami was horrified. This was just getting more and more odd.

"That was a good one, Izuki." she wiped away a few tears.

Izuki's face was burning - no one had ever _cried_ at his jokes - and he was fairly sure that everyone could tell. "T-Thanks."

* * *

As the fourth quarter started, Rin, thankfully, went back to her regular self, to the relief of everyone on the bench.

Even Kuroko let out a sigh of relief when she stopped laughing at everything anyone said.

"So that's Dad, right?" she asked, her eyes following the large Senegal player.

He nodded.

Dad looked just as the team knew he would - a giant with impossibly long limbs and a permanent scowl. His English was poor and broken, but the tone of his voice and menace in his eyes was more than enough to get the message across - _he would not lose_.

Rin whistled low. "He's built like a wall! Seeing it in real life is so different from seeing it in a photograph..."

Kuroko glanced at her. He had come to realize that Rin was similar to Riko and Momoi in certain ways. Riko could look at a person and tell you all of their statistics and numbers. Momoi could do a bit of digging and tell you their entire life story - but that required a bit of time. However, Rin was a combination of both. She could look at a person and tell you their height and weight, personality, movement and style, and proceed to make inferences based upon that. Her inferences were never 100% correct, but they were usually quite accurate.

"What do you see?" he asked her, watching as her eyes flitted from player to player.

She tilted her head slightly, green eyes narrowing as she rattled off her observations. "Dad is the center of their plays - all they do is pass to him and rely on his shooting. However, I know that Tanimura Yusuke-san has a fairly high shooting percentage - not anything monstrous like Hyuga-san's or that Midorima Shintaro-san fellow, but he is above average - so if Dad is shut down by Kagami-san, then he could sink a few twos and perhaps a three."

Kuroko waited, because he knew she wasn't finished yet.

"Kagami-san should be able to shut down Dad - his jumps have been increasingly getting higher throughout the fourth quarter so far - so we shouldn't have to worry about that much longer." Rin watched as Tanimura sunk a shaky three. "The score difference is only a single digit, but we have this game in the bag. I didn't even need to bring my notebook."

* * *

Riko leaned over me, to speak to Kuroko. "Can you go for the last five minutes?"

I had to smother a laugh when Kuroko responded with a dry look. "As a matter of fact, I've been ready to go for a while."

Riko sighed in relief. If he still had that awful sense of humor of his, then he'd be fine. "Sorry."

Kuroko was subbed in immediately and the difference was incredible. He flickered around the court, knocking away passes, blocking and redirecting. Sometimes I could spy him out of the corner of my eye, but by the time I looked, he'd be gone.

"Don't let your guard down until it's over!" Hyuga called out to a slightly-lagging Izuki. "Let's get them!"

Dad made a shot. "No! I don't want to lose!"

Kagami grinned, the rubber soles of his shoes squeaking against the polished wood. "You say the Generation of Miracles is weak-" his muscles stretched and pulled as he kicked off the floor. "-but compared to you..." Kagami's arm outstretched. "...they're way stronger!"

He slapped the ball down and the bench went crazy.

"He finally blocked Dad's shot!"

"Killin' it, Kagami-san!"

"We did it!"

"No, Kagami-kun did it!"

The buzzer screeched as if to tell us to shut up. It didn't work. I could barely hear the referee's "Game over!" over Fukuda and Furihata's excited cheers.

Seirin won, 79 - 67. Even if Dad had made that last basket, it would have only been a two - they would have lost either way.

I helped Riko pack up her things - she had brought a heaping of medical supplies after what had happened at the Kaijou VS Seirin game.

"I mean, you a idiot!"

I turned around to see Dad getting all up in a very confused Kagami's face. "Idiot!"

Tanimura grabbed the back of Dad's jacket, yanking him away. "That's it, let's go, Papa."

"You moron!" I wasn't sure if Dad was yelling at Tanimura or Kagami. "I not lose next time!"

Kuroko watched blankly, as Kagami got irritated. "How dare he!"

Hyuga sighed. "Not again."

* * *

The day after the game was May 4th... my birthday.

I was turning 16.

"Happy birthday, Rin!" Isa skipped school that day, waking me up gleefully. "I baked you breakfast!" she sang, jolting me awake.

I groaned. "Isa, you don't bake breakfast, you cook it." the smell of smoke filled my nostrils. "...nevermind."

She scrambled out of the room as the fire alarm went off.

I flipped open my phone from beside me, looking at the time. "...it's 7:25."

The train left at 7:30.

I changed as quickly as I could, grabbing my toothbrush and dumping toothpaste onto it. I grabbed a water bottle and tossed it into my school bag.

As I rushed through the kitchen, Isa held out a pan with what looked like it could have been eggs once. "Where are you going, Rin? I baked you breakfast."

"Late for the train." I barely managed to say, slipping on sneakers and making a run for it.

* * *

I brushed my teeth as I ran, rinsing out with the waterbottle. As I boarded the train and collapsed into my seat beside Aomine, I gargled water.

"That's gross and unhygienic." he drawled, watching as I spat it out into the trash bin.

I ignored him, throwing away the empty bottle and toothbrush. I'd have to pick up a new one on my way home.

"Happy birthday, Rin-chan!" Satsuki exclaimed, choosing to ignore the toothbrush incident. "You look different today."

I sniffed. "Well, I woke up like three minutes ago, so I'm not going to look like a supermodel-"

Satsuki came to a realization of what was different. "Your hair is down!"

I stiffened. "W-What?"

Let me make something clear right now- I did not like my hair down. It made me _very_ uncomfortable. Whenever it brushed against the back of my neck, I'd get the shivers and feel like something was crawling across my skin - which feels nasty.

And in the mess that had occurred that morning, I had completely forgotten a hair-tie, let alone to tie it up. "Do you have an extra hair thing, Satsuki?"

She smiled apologetically. "No... but I do have your birthday present!" she passed me a bright pink package. "It's from Aomine-kun and I."

I groaned, but accepted it regardless. "You didn't have to get me anything! Now I have to get you both gifts... when are your birthdays anyways?"

Aomine tossed a package wrapped in newspaper at Satsuki. "Satsuki's is today."

I gaped. "We have the same birthday?! And you didn't tell me?!"

For the first time, Satsuki looked embarrassed for reasons other than Kuroko. "Umm-"

"We have the same birthday and you didn't even tell me!" I mock-glared at her. "How mean."

"Aomine-kun's birthday is August 31st!" she responded, trying to redirect my frustration.

Aomine promptly scowled at her. "Oi, Satsuki, don't tell her that. She might do some voodoo or somethin'."

"August 31st is months away, yours is today!" I groaned. "You guys are impossible. Satsuki, I'll have your present tomorrow. Aomine-san, you will get yours after summer break, okay?"

"Don't get me somethin' I'll hate." he ordered. "Preferably somethin' to do with Horikita Mai... none of that Hirabayashi Miki shit."

Satsuki leaned over to whisper to me loudly. "Aomine-kun likes his porn models."

He shrugged, looking out the window. "I ain't ashamed."

I shook my head - these two were absolutely impossible - and began unwrapping my gift from Aomine and Satsuki. "Oh, you guys." It was a long red scarf, soft to the touch. I gingerly pulled it out from the wrapping. "It's... It's wonderful-"

_-and I'm going to look like a Mikasa Ackerman cosplayer._

"I dunno why Satsuki insisted on that." Aomine interrupted, not even glancing at me. "It's the fuckin' spring, I dunno what the hell she was thinkin'-"

"It was pretty!" Satsuki defended, looking very much offended. "I have a yellow one, so we can match at the Winter Cup. It's something that _friends_ do, Aomine-kun." She ripped open her own gift with a vengeance, her anger dissipating immediately as she opened it. "Oh, Dai-chan."

Aomine stiffened at the nickname, but didn't say anything. I watched carefully.

Satsuki rewrapped up her gift, essentially hiding it from view - I didn't get to glimpse at what it was. When I tried to peek, she simply smiled at me.

* * *

When I got to school, my desk was decorated with all sorts of trinkets. There was a handful of cards and candies, little toys and doohickeys. There was an_ Oh Henry!_ chocolate bar, revealing the culprit.

"Kohi." I laughed, setting the chocolate bar aside - I wasn't going to fall for that one again.

I opened the first of three cards. It was homemade and bright yellow. It had been drawn quickly, a picture of two girls holding hands - one with a ponytail and the other with glasses and long hair.

_Happy birthday dorkface  
lmao  
this is from kohi if u didnt guess  
also i made ichisada pay for everything  
so this was a success  
-kohi_

I laughed, ignoring the looks I got from the people in my class. The second one was store-bought and I guessed who it was from.

_Happy birthday  
May all your best wishes come true!_

Then came the actual message.

_Thanks for getting me involved in all of Kohi-san's affairs, Kobayashi-san.  
The clubroom is painfully loud now.  
-Ichisada Hideaki  
Newspaper Club President_

I smiled - the actual message was so different from the Hallmark one printed above it. I could practically hear Kohi saying _'It's such an accurate representation of Ichi's tsundere personality.'_

The third one was, out of politeness, from Fuji, the other sports reporter, which was just the Hallmark message and her loopy signature.

_It's your special day!  
Don't waste it!  
Happy birthday!  
-Fuji_

I dropped the three cards into my bag, sweeping all of the sweets into my bag. I'd sort through them later, I decided, and figure out which ones had peanuts in them and which ones didn't.

(I wouldn't put it past Kohi to poison me, accidentally or not.)

Kagami marched into the classroom, and dropped himself into his seat without a word. My smile faded a bit. I had told him once, about my birthday.

It was alright. I shook my head. He looked exhausted from the game yesterday... After all, he did expand his jumping height by a good couple of centimeters.

I pulled out a piece of taffy from my bag - probably the only thing I had received that _didn't_ contain nuts - and sucked on it thoughtfully.

I had already had such a nice birthday.

* * *

I proceeded to practice as usual - I had received a few well-wishes from some kids in the Newspaper Club in the hallways, but nothing from the basketball team.

While I did feel a bit forgotten, I hadn't told them about it so it wasn't necessarily their fault. I felt a bit like Satsuki, having not told them, but I didn't expect anything anyways.

Since we had won our first preliminary game, we would next be facing off against Jitsuzen. That game was on May 6th, the day after the next.

"We're going to the clubroom." she shouted after about twenty minutes of the boys running numerous drills. "I dug up some Jitsuzen film - they're not as notable as Shinkyo, so today will probably be the only strategizing day. Tomorrow will be a cool-off day so you're not overworked before you play."

Everyone looked relieved for a break, whooping and shouting as they swarmed out of the gym and into the clubroom.

I was gathering my things together, when Riko paused at the door. "You coming, Rin-san?"

"I'm just getting my things, go on ahead." I assured her, struggling to pack my composition book into my bag with all of the candies and toys that Kohi had left for me.

After a moment, I had everything together and I rushed out of the gym.

* * *

The clubroom was dark. I doubled-back and checked the door - no, it was clubroom 25...

I was surprised. I had beat the others there.

I flicked on the lights and promptly was greeted with a heart attack.

"Happy birthday!" the basketball team was crowded in the room, all of them grinning and Riko held a camera. The desks had all been pushed out of the way and there was a table with a single present in the middle of the room, surrounded by the boys.

Izuki and Koga simultaneously tackled me to the floor, both of them laughing. I dropped my bag in the mess. "K-Koganei-san! Izuki-san!"

"Happy birthday, Reporter-san!" Koga said cheerfully, messing up my hair more than it already was. A day without a ponytail had been a painful one indeed.

"Thanks you guys." I smiled, before pausing. "Can I stand now?"

Izuki elbowed Koga out of the way, eagerly helping me to my feet.

"Thanks, Izuki-san." I told him, before facing the rest of the room. "You didn't have to do this for me. How did you even know?"

Riko suddenly looked cross. "I knew because I had checked your file. Kagami-kun knew too - for reasons I have no explanation for. Thanks for telling everyone, Rin-san!"

I looked to Kagami, surprised. I thought he had forgotten.

The poor boy was clearly embarrassed, scratching his cheek. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted.

"Contrary to popular belief," Kuroko appeared beside me and I almost keeled over. "Kagami-kun is a very good listener."

"D-Don't say embarrassing things!"

"Not like you could get any more embarrassed..." I muttered, looking away. "You look like a radish."

Now he was angry. "Don't call me a radish!"

Kuroko immediately rose to my defense, further proving himself as _Kuroko Tetsuya: Honor Defender. _"Please don't tell Rin-san what to do, Radish-san."

"Not you too!"

"We got you something!" Hyuga interrupted, before Kagami and Kuroko ripped each other apart. "We all chipped in and did a fundraiser for it, along with new uniforms. The uniforms won't come in for a while, but we were able to pick up your gift immediately."

"You didn't have to do anything," I said, suddenly shy. I felt like I was going to shrink into myself any moment and never come out.

The first-years were, shockingly, the ones to come up with a rebuttal to that. "Of course we did!"

Fukuda crossed his arms. "You're in our grade and the only ones who told you happy birthday were the Newspaper Club kids."

Kawahara nodded. "We would have told you happy birthday, but Coach insisted on making it a surprise."

"No one told you other than the Newspaper Club kids!" Furihata was uncharacteristically infuriated. "How awful!"

* * *

As he watched the scene, Izuki muttered over to Hyuga. "Surprising that the first-years would be so upset."

Hyuga, however, was less surprised. "She's a first-year, don't forget."

"Sometimes I do." Izuki shrugged. "It seems like she's been here forever."

The captain almost laughed. "Remember last year's reporter?"

Izuki didn't even have to think, the image of now-second-year Robinson Catherine - otherwise known as Kohi - springing to mind. "Please don't remind me."

"You're just embarrassed that her jokes were better than yours-"

"They weren't!"

* * *

Mitobe and Tsuchida had been the ones to set everything up, Koga blabbed to me, as he dragged out a chair for me to sit in. They had snuck away during lunch - I was surprised to hear of the quiet ones' wild side - and set up the clubroom, blowing up balloons and hanging streamers. It was a very simple set-up, but it had been thoughtful and I was touched.

"Thank you, Mitobe-san, Tsuchida-san." I felt like a broken record, repeating thanks so many times.

"No problem!" Tsuchida said cheerfully, while Mitobe only smiled back.

Riko set the single gift into my arms. "Here you go, Rin-san! Take care of it, okay?" she winked at me.

Everyone looked on in anticipation as I carefully unwrapped the gift. As I tore away the first part of the paper, I immediately knew what it was.

I stared, gaping at my... my _friends_. "Y-You didn't..."

Riko seemed barely able to control her excitement, squealing. "We _did_!"

I felt like my heart was going to burst as the paper fell away. "You got me a computer and that's crazy expensive." I cradled it in my arms, feeling very dumb as I looked at them with starry eyes. "H-How?"

"We each raised money," Izuki blurted, struggling to contain his excitement. "we've been preparing since April 5th."

* * *

Rin carefully set aside her computer and everyone eyed her carefully.

She had been spouting her thanks since the moment she had walked into the room, and they expected an onslaught of gratitude.

What they hadn't expected was for her to slap her hand over her mouth and begin sobbing.

"D-Don't be sad!" Riko was panicking. "I-I'm sorry!"

* * *

"Oh, I'm not sad!" I assured them, through blurred eyes and shaking shoulders. "T-These are happy tears!"

In honesty, I wasn't sure if they were sad tears or happy tears.

The last time I had gotten a party and a present (other than familial, of course) had been from Kazu, when he had scared me by shutting everything in the gym down and asking me to go turn on the power from the office. I had complied immediately with the request, and when I had returned, he had had an entire bash ready for me, complete with balloons, streamers and cake.

I had been very much embarrassed, even more so when he had given me a sweater that he had asked his grandmother to help him with, with a large 'R' knitted on it. It had been soft, white letter on black yarn, and he had tugged it over my head and refused to let me take it off for the entire afternoon, even though it had gone against uniform.

I still had it, buried at the bottom of my dresser.

I had thought of it, the lonely sweater hidden behinds mounds of clothes, immediately reminded by this. I wasn't sure if I was crying for the sad sweater that had been forgotten, or crying that I had _friends_who _cared_ and would do such a thing for me.

Probably both.

I sniffed viciously - probably giving myself brain damage and that was totally gross in hindsight - looking up at my _friends_ through red eyes. "I love you guys."

Riko immediately cooed, dragging me into a hug. "We love you too, Rin-san!"

After what I assumed was a dark look thrown at the rest of the team, Hyuga hesitantly joined our hug, yanking Izuki along with him. The first-years and Koga enthusiastically embraced us, while Tsuchida and Mitobe stoically came on their own.

"There are some things I refuse to do." Kagami told me, as I could barely see him from under Izuki's arm. "This is one of them."

"Don't be such a tsundere, Kagami-kun." Kuroko appeared behind him, pushing him into our hug with all of his strength. We were almost knocked over. Kuroko joined behind Kagami, all but locking the latter in. "There is no escape."

* * *

Kuroko, Kagami and oddly enough, Izuki were apparently on clean-up duty, as the others completely ditched them. I joined them eagerly, despite their protests.

"Kagami-kun and I will treat you to dinner after." Kuroko promised, ignoring the way Kagami shouted at him. "It's the least we can do."

"Oh, cleaning is no problem." I assured him, untying balloons from the chairs. "You guys bought me a computer - I feel so guilty about it, Kuroko-san, Kagami-san. You too, Izuki-san."

Kagami scratched his cheek. "I feel kinda awkward about you callin' me 'Kagami-_san_'. Kobayashi, you're older - you can just drop the suffix."

Kuroko nodded as well. "Please just call me Kuroko."

"Ehh?" I felt pressured suddenly. "Kuroko-kun and Kagami-kun then. Dropping suffix entirely would be flat-out rude."

Izuki blinked. PING! "Flat-out refusal is flat-out rude."

"Izuki-senpai, control yourself." Kagami took the place of Hyuga, chiding the second-year for his joke.

"I thought it was clever, Izuki-san." I told him, sniffing indignantly at Kagami. "Kagami-kun can't pun for his life, I'm sure."

Kagami flared up at that. "I-I can too!"

"Prove it, Kagami-kun." Kuroko sounded almost eager, but his poker-face revealed none of his true feelings. "I confess to wanting to see Kagami-kun drop a _one-line_."

I laughed. Kuroko's English was horribly butchered.

"It's _one-liner_, Kuroko-kun." I corrected lightly. We all looked to Kagami, whose face was slightly flushed by then. "Let's hear it, Kagami-kun. Come up with a joke."

"G-Give me a moment, would ya?!"

"Kagami can figure it out on our way to the Maji Burger." Izuki allotted, opening the closet and tossing his broom inside.

"Oh, Izuki-san, you're coming with us?" I was surprised. Usually he hung out with Hyuga and the other second-years... I had never talked to him without them around. "The more the merrier, right?"

* * *

Kagami hadn't said a word since we had arrived at the fast-food restaurant.

Kuroko had ordered for him - I was informed that this was a frequent haunt for the two of them - since the other first-year had refused to say anything, he was so deep in thought.

I had opted for a shake and a burger - I wasn't too hungry, but if I refused to nibble, Kuroko and Kagami would probably hound me - while Izuki just got a basket of fries. "My mom saved my dinner for me." he explained briefly, as he dumped salt onto his fries.

"You're going to die." I told him, as the clear crystals became visible on the thinly sliced fries. "That's way too much salt."

Kagami stared at the fries thoughtfully, a hamburger already stuffed in his mouth, even as he ripped away the paper.

"This will cause you to develop all sorts of health problems-"

Kagami slammed his hand on the table, all but swallowing the burger whole. "I got it!"

Kuroko set down his vanilla shake with a quiet thud. "Let's hear it."

I jumped. I had forgotten he was there.

He cleared his throat. "Too many fries can make you die." Kagami's pride was practically visible as he grinned at us. "Well?"

Izuki had whipped out his notebook, scribbling Kagami's joke down in his chicken-scratch for handwriting. "That _pun_ will never be _overdone_!"

"Stop making jokes, Izuki-san, it's past your working hours." I told him, but smiled slightly at Kagami. "Good attempt."

"Thanks- wait, what do you mean by 'attempt'?!"

"Exactly what it sounds like, Kagami-kun." Kuroko said, blue eyes blank. "I'm sort of disappointing. I guess our _ace_ was just putting on a _face_."

"Nice one, Kuroko/Kuroko-kun." Izuki and I praised together.

"Why does he get complimented by you and I don't?"

Kuroko smiled slightly to himself. "No need to get jealous, Kagami-kun. I know Rin-san is very appealing to you, but you have to control yourself-"

"That's not it at all!"

* * *

I was having a brilliant time. Izuki was constantly making jokes - Kagami would attempt to one-up him, but ultimately fail. Kuroko would interject a brilliant, effortless phrase that would just irk Kagami instantly.

I was sitting on Izuki's right, against the window, across from Kuroko and Kagami. This was unfortunate for Kuroko - he was right in Kagami's swatting range - whenever he one-upped Kagami (which was essentially every time he spoke).

"Shun, is that you?" a girl's voice wondered in disbelief.

Izuki - it took me a moment to realize that he was Shun - wrinkled his nose in obvious distaste. "Sachiko, what are you doing here?"

* * *

And we met Izuki's younger sister, Sachiko.

She squeezed in on the other side of Kuroko, grinning pleasantly all around. "Hey, I'm Izuki Sachiko, but since you guys are as old as Shun is, you can just call me Sachiko."

Izuki was, as expected, highly embarrassed. "Sachiko, I'm with my friends, you can't just barge in and-"

"I can barge in if I want." she retorted, crossing her arms.

I hid a smile.

"Oh, I got one!" she cleared her throat, looking very serious. "I barge in on a barge."

Izuki rolled his eyes. "_Obviously_."

"I'm Kobayashi Rin." I said, in a feeble attempt to diffuse the clear sibling-rivalry. "The blue-haired invisible boy is Kuroko Tetsuya-kun, and the angry looking red-head with the funky eyebrows is Kagami Taiga-kun."

"'Funky eyebrows'?!" Kagami looked like he was going to blow his top.

"Are you in Shun's class?" Sachiko asked me with a smile. "Are you guys friends? Oooh, are you his _girlfriend_?"

"Uh, I'm actually a first-year..." I laughed nervously. "We're all first-years. And, um, I'm not."

She visibly deflated. "You should be. He's not _that _bad under his surface personality-"

"It's my real personality!"

"-but I'm sure we can work it out later." she smiled at Kuroko and Kagami. "Nice to meet you two as well." she blinked. "Wait... Nice to meet you two _too_."

"That was good, Sachiko-san." I snickered. Hey. Don't judge. I had just drank my way through an entire strawberry shake. It was a miracle that I hadn't started stringing together the few English words I knew to Kagami in an attempt to speak the language with him.

"Thanks, Kobayashi-senpai!" she beamed at me, before sending Izuki a look. "Shun, you really should have more friends. Even if they're cool, you should be hanging out with more second-years. When I go to Seirin next year, I want to have third-year boy friends, not just second year boy friends."

Izuki stared her down. "Your only second year boy friends would be Kuroko and Kagami."

"I'm sure that Kagami-senpai knows _tons_ of hotties." she dismissed easily. "And Kuroko-senpai is a cutie for sure."

I was surprised. She had managed to see Kuroko - even if they were sitting next to each other. I wondered why...

I mulled it over. _Eagle Eye._

I narrowed my eyes at my half-eaten burger in thought. Izuki had it... it wouldn't be too much of a stretch that she would have it, right?

It was just odd that if she did have the Eagle Eye, she would be subconsciously using it then. _Perhaps she has it activated all the time? No... even Izuki-san can have his Eagle Eye activated all the time, can he?_

Izuki groaned. "Don't say embarrassing things like that to Kuroko, Sachiko. Shoo."

The younger girl huffed, but obliged anyways. "Fine, I'm going - don't get your tighty-whities in a twist, Shun." she waggled her fingers with a wink at a straight-faced Kuroko. "Bye cute Kuroko-senpai! Later, Kagami-senpai!"

Finally, she directed the full blunt of her Eagle Eye (or what I suspected to be her Eagle Eye) on me. "Nice talkin' to you, Kobayashi-senpai. I'll probably be seeing you at one of Shun's games, right?"

I blinked. "What-"

"You're the reporter, right?" she grinned. "I'll be going to their Interhigh games when they make it to the Community Arena - you know, when they start getting into like the quarter-finals and all."

I was surprised - she had such confidence in the Seirin team, though I doubted she had seen them play at all that year. She just believed in them.

"I'll see you there, right?"

I dumbly nodded.

She bade everyone a final goodbye, slipping out the door.

"Sorry about that," Izuki apologized awkwardly. "my sister is kind of a handful."

"I liked her," I told him with a shrug. "No need to apologize. One thing was weird though..."

Izuki's brow furrowed. "What?'

"I never told her I was a reporter." my words were accusatory.

Izuki turned red. "Umm..."

It was the greatest birthday I had ever had.

* * *

**Omg i originally had one where instead of izuki showing up it was kise and kasamatsu-senpai but i was like wait they live in kanagawa so i burned like 2000 words away thank u for nothing**

* * *

**question:**

**if rin was going to be on any basketball team in knb, what team would she play for**

* * *

**Leave a review**

**lmao**

**i have nothing funny to say here**

**LeoInuyuka**


	9. Team Tetsu-kun is Formed

Chapter 8

Team Tetsu-kun is Formed

* * *

**Reviewer Quote:**

**kagami can actually be izuki's long lost pun maker partner  
****- runa**

* * *

We had won the game against Shinkyo. Our next game was against a school called Jitsuzen High, a lower-tier high school.

We hadn't even needed to pull out Kuroko.

We completely yanked the carpet out from under Jitsuzen's feet, easily doubling their score, 118-51. After the match, their captain, a second-year named Ichirou, came to speak to me.

"I hear that your team has a goal of defeating all of the Generation of Miracles." he said, matter-of-factly.

I blinked. I was surprised that he was talking to me about this - he should have been asking someone else. Perhaps our coach or his fellow captain, maybe even Kagami, our ace. But no, he came to me, the quiet reporter. Sort of odd, but I didn't question it. Instead, I adjusted my grip on my composition book. "T-That would be correct."

His eyes were cold. "I don't think you'll be able to do it."

I stayed silent.

"You may have been able to double _our_ score," his voice was sharp, knowingly cutting into me. "but they're on a whole different level. When I was in middle school, they quadrupled my school in the Nationals. We didn't stand a chance. I heard about what happened with that copycat Kise, and your win against Kaijou, but that's meaningless. A fluke. You don't stand a chance."

"I'm sorry, Ichirou-san, but it is you who did not stand a chance." I met his eyes evenly. "Seirin _will_ beat the Generation of Miracles, whether it's at Interhigh or Winter Cup. And we _will_ make it to Winter Cup. We have the persistence to keep working hard, even if we do lose. If we lose now, we will most certainly win later. If you have any sort of hope left, you might as well bet it on us, because we will be the ones to take it the furthest."

It was probably the most I had ever said at a single time to a complete stranger in my entire life.

"If you would excuse me," I lightly pushed past him. "I must be going."

I shoved open the doors, where Kagami and Kuroko were waiting for me.

"I was gonna step in if that guy was givin' you any trouble." Kagami told me sideways, as we started down the long hallway that led from the gymnasium to outside. "What was he botherin' you about anyway?"

"Nothing." I clipped shortly, stuffing my notebook into my bag as we walked. "Ichirou-san was having some doubts, but I was quick to clear them up. We don't want people being naive, now do we?"

* * *

Our next match was against Kinga High - a school with a balanced offense and defense that had placed in the top 16 last year.

We had won, 92-71.

Kuroko had been saved through that game as well - Riko and I had collectively decided that the less people who saw Kuroko's ability, the better. The more invisible he stayed, the more surprising and effective he would be against opponents that we needed his ability against.

Kinga High's point guard, a third-year named Kenji, stopped me as I was packing up my things. "U-Umm, are you Kobayashi Rin?"

I stopped in my movements and looked at him. "...yes?"

He was a big guy, with a couple inches over even Kagami. "My cousin told me that he talked to you last game... he's the captain of Jitsuzen. Do you remember him?"

"Ichirou-san, yes I know of him." I was a little confused. Why was Ichirou going around blabbing about me? I got sort of nervous - maybe Ichirou sent his gigantic cousin to beat me up because I had been a little short with him. "W-Why?"

"I'd like to thank you, in his stead." Kenji bowed stiffly, a sharp ninety degree angle. "I had gone to the same middle school as him, when Teikou had quadrupled our score. Since your school is going to beat the Generation of Miracles, I'd like to place our trust in you! Please beat them!"

I felt a bit awkward. Why was _I _always the one singled out? "Please don't bow to me, Kenji-san. We haven't beaten them all yet. But you can believe in us - we absolutely refuse to lose. We will be the best in Japan, Generation of Miracles or not."

"Thank you very much." he bowed again, before excusing himself.

Kuroko suddenly appeared next to me, watching as Kenji ambled away. "So that's what you were talking to that Jitsuzen captain for."

I jumped. "Kuroko-kun, please control yourself. Or wear a bell."

He ignored that suggestion. "What exactly did you say to the Jitsuzen captain?" he asked, the full blunt of his bright blue eyes a bit eerie.

I reddened a bit. "It was sort of embarrassing, but... I told him that he can bet whatever is left of his hope in us. Because we will be the ones who will absolutely never give up?"

"...you're like some sort of manga character, aren't you?"

"I'm not!"

* * *

Our fourth game was a _tad_ odd.

It was at the Tokyo community center - not at the Tokyo Theatre, where games would eventually be held.

Kagami seemed to recognize them, greeting them personally. "Yo, so it's you guys, huh?"

"Hello." Kuroko materialized beside the taller Seirin player, a ball balanced on his finger, whizzing as it spun around.

The Meijo team immediately screeched in horror.

"What was that all about?" I asked Kuroko, as he and Kagami rejoined the rest of us.

"Oh, Kagami-kun and I played street basketball against them once." he said, a bit mysteriously.

I waited. "And?"

"That's it." he shrugged.

I blew out air. "That doesn't explain why they're shaking in their tracks."

Regardless of their acquaintanceship (if you could call it that), we brutally took them down, 108-41.

* * *

Just after our game against Meijo ended, the team was lingering for a moment.

"Shutoku will be showing up soon." Kuroko had murmured to himself, but Kagami and I had heard.

"Oh, they're the ones with that Midorima Shintaro, right?" Kagami had asked me, since Kuroko was all but in his own little world.

I nodded. "That's right."

"When I give you the signal," Kagami said seriously. "give me a marker, alright?"

"Umm, okay."

It hadn't been the oddest request I had ever gotten, I told myself, remembering how Kazu had once asked me for white paint since he had made a mistake in ink on a project. I had refused immediately, instead suggesting white-out.

He had been amazed.

_Idiot_.

* * *

I had excused myself, and left the gymnasium, in search of the restroom.

I sniffed, turning the corner to exit the bathroom. But as I did, I bumped into someone.

We both fell on our asses - something that was probably far from elegant on me, let alone the fact that my skirt probably went up, but I scrambled to fix it. "I'm so sorry," I apologized, hurrying to my knees. "Are you alright?"

A boy with long dark hair parted in the middle and narrowed silvery blue eyes laughed. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Are you alright?"

Just as I was about to give the affirmative, I was interrupted.

"It was as expected," someone else scoffed, indignantly. He was tall, a long shadow cast over me and that other guy I knocked down. His tone of voice was deep, with a touch of arrogance that I immediately took a distaste to. "Scorpio does have the worst luck today. It wasn't the girl's fault, Takao, it was simply fate."

I quickly rose to my feet, offering the boy on the floor a hand, which he took greatfully. "Thanks for that... Shin-chan _obviously_ wasn't going to help me up."

"Don't call me Shin-chan!"

I turned to Shin-chan, eager to apologize to him as well. "Sorry for causing you trouble as well, uhh, Shin...san."

"It wasn't your fault," he dismissed easily.

I had to force down the natural response which was to gape - Shin-chan was an absolute giant, dwarfing me easily. I quickly added him up to be a solid 195 centimeters - almost half a meter taller than me. He was a bit tree-like, his tall frame topped smartly by a green wave - sort of like leaves, you know? - with intelligent green eyes that peered out from behind black frames.

His gaze was just as judgmental as I had expected it to be. "Takao is, after all, the one at fault for being a Scorpio." Suddenly his eyes narrowed, and he scowled down at me. "Unless, of course, you are also a Scorpio?"

"I-I don't think so?" I was more than a bit intimidated.

Takao, however, was far from intimidating, looking more put-out than anything. "You're practically saying it's my fault for _existing._"

Shin-chan didn't miss a beat. "Precisely."

There was an uncomfortable moment of quiet - Takao was a bit offended at Shin-chan, so he didn't say anything, while Shin-chan didn't say anything because he was _clearly_ a bad conversationalist and I just felt awkward.

"Well, I'm Kobayashi Rin." I blurted, probably a bit more than eager to cut off the silence. I liked quiet well and through enough, but wow, when it's uncomfortable, it's just _bad_.

Takao absolutely beamed at me - Shin-chan's hurtful words forgiven and forgotten. "I'm Takao Kazunari and this tsundere here-"

Shin-chan bristled. "I am not a tsundere!"

"-is Midorima Shintaro." Takao finished, as though said tsundere had not said a thing.

I smiled at Takao, almost blanching when I realized that he too was a giant in comparison to me. He was nowhere in the league of someone like Midorima Shintaro or Kagami, but he was far from short. I summed him up to be 176 centimeters - I realized after a moment that this was, in fact, _average_, and I was just a midget. "Nice to meet you two, Takao-san, Midorima-san."

It was then, and only then, that I recognized the traffic-cone orange of their sweatsuits - Takao's was unbuttoned and loose while Midorima's was neat, but stiff, something that I thought was painfully accurate to their personalities - and read the neat English writing on their chest.

I tilted my head, taking a bit longer than a moment to sound out the Romanji letters. "You guys are Shutoku?"

Takao nodded quickly. "Yup! Have you heard of us?"

I had, in fact, heard of Shutoku - a lot, in fact. They were one of the great kings of Tokyo - Shutoku of the West. They were an old school with lots of new talent, talent that had been recruited from one of the most memorable names in Japanese middle school sports _ever_. Midorima Shintaro - _this_ Midorima Shintaro, I realized, after a moment - from the Generation of Miracles had been scouted almost immediately by the school.

"You're Midorima Shintaro." I said, stupidly. At Takao and Midorima's blank looks, I reiterated. "As in Midorima-Shintaro-of-the-Generation-of-Miracles Midorima Shintaro."

"Congratulations." Takao hid a snicker. "Usually people figure it out when I introduce him - since he'd _never_ introduce himself, the bastard."

I was talking to the enemy, I quickly concluded. This was bad. They might somehow figure something about me through our conversation. I pointed to the gym over Takao's shoulder quickly, hurrying around them. "I'm just, uhh, going to go-"

"You're going to the gym too?" Takao's hand slipped around my wrist easily. "Great! Let's go together!"

As Takao started dragging me along, I sent a plea in the form of a look to Midorima. I almost sobbed when he returned the look in the form of a glare.

_This guy is as bad as Kise!_

* * *

Takao and Midorima met up with their team just outside of the gym. As their teammates - all of them seniors - came into view, Takao quickly released my wrist.

I made a run for it, but was stopped immediately by his arm around my shoulder. "Come on, Rin-chan-"

_Please don't call me Rin-chan!_

"-you can't go on ditching us now!" Takao whined loudly in my ear.

I inched away slightly, feeling a bit violated.

"After all," his eyes suddenly narrowed, silver blue becoming piercing. "we might be playing you in the preliminary finals, _Seirin_-chan." He sing-songed the last bit, but the threat underneath was painfully clear.

I almost threw up right there and then. _This guy seemed okay, but now he seems scarier than Midorima! He must be Generation of Miracles too, because he is W-E-I-R-D!_

"Oh, you figured it out as well, Takao?" Midorima sounded almost a bit approving of his - I'm going to say that they're partners, because their relationship was a bit more than indescribable - partner's observation. "Kobayashi is part of Seirin?"

Takao sniffed, a bit offended. I had noticed that getting offended was a reoccurring factor in their relationship. "Uh, _duh_. She's wearing their uniform!"

_Why do you have our uniform memorized?!_

"Not to mention," Takao's eyes were bright. "we _did_ see her at that Kaijou match, when she was leaving, didn't we?"

_That's so scary! Why do you remember me?!_

"Can I leave?" I asked what looked like their captain, since his sports bag had a large '4' printed on it. "I feel a bit like a victim in this situation, and it's making me _more_ than uncomfortable."

"Oh, come on, captain!" Takao whined to the gigantic high-schooler. "It's one of Shin-chan's three requests."

"I never said-!"

Takao hushed Midorima. "Shh." he turned back to the captain. "We'll return her in a minute, we just want her to relay a message."

Midorima grunted, pushing past the rest of his team. "Why do we need her to relay the message," he pushed open the doors. "when we can relay it ourselves?"

"That's very true," I agreed, nodding furiously as Takao ambled along, arm still slung around my shoulder. "Now release me."

"I'll just escort you, then." he grinned sideways at me, and I felt my face burn red. _This is the end of my social life, as short as it was._

* * *

As we entered the gym, I felt the unfamiliar feeling of people's eyes on me. I immediately stiffened - I had never really been the center of attention, for reasons quite clear - it had always made me uncomfortable, and now, even with Midorima's easy confidence that attracted a majority of everyone's attention, I felt sick.

"This is awful." I muttered to myself. "You're awful, Takao-san."

"Oh, you can just drop the suffix." he squeezed my shoulders and I was literally going to blow myself up. "We're friends, right?"

Kagami, _bless him, bless him, **bless him**, _was the one who came to my rescue, scowling pointedly at Takao. "What do you think you're doin'?"

Takao grinned, releasing me - I immediately flew behind Kagami and buried my face in his back - _please let me die, please let me die, please let me die_ - raising his hands in mock-surrender. "Just gettin' acquainted."

I decided that no, I didn't like Takao Kazunari. His casual ease that he approached me with was _horribly, painfully, drastically _familiar and I was not yet emotionally prepared for someone who was so_, so _like him.

He was far too much like Kazu and that was something that I was really not ready for yet.

Kagami shot him a final glare before turning to Midorima. "Yo, Midorima Shintaro, right? Wanna control your friend?"

I could have kissed Kagami. He was the protective shield I had always needed in social situations.

"I am." Midorima met Kagami's scowl evenly. "And he's my servant, not my friend. Sorry, I don't know you."

Judging by the way Takao immediately snickered, Midorima _did_ know who Kagami was, and was just doing the whole 'I'm so cool' deal that all 'cool' guys did.

Kagami took this coolly, and elbowed me.

_The signal!_

I snuck a marker into his hand. _This better be good._

Kagami held out his hand to Midorima, and the latter stared. "You want to shake hands?"

The former smirked.

I died internally.

With a sigh of resignation, Midorima extended his left hand - his fingers were oddly taped, but you know, when it comes to the Generation of Miracles, you just learn to stop asking _why__._

Instead of shaking, Kagami caught Midorima's hand and in simple, easy strokes, had printed out a beautiful message.

_Seirin Number 10_

_Kagami Taiga_

"Good luck forgetting his name now." I muttered, grinning a bit to myself as Takao dissolved into cackles.

As Kagami and Midorima exchanged (threatening) words, I made a break for the sidelines, all but ripping my notebook out of my bag.

I was rushing, so the scribble was hardly legible, but the message was clear.

_Midorima Shintaro attends Shutoku High, but known as the Generation of Miracles_

_He's a sharpshooter_

_He will not miss_

* * *

I excused myself immediately after that - Isa, who had sort of been ditched on my birthday, had gotten reservations at a nearby bowling alley. She had told me to invite any of my friends, but Kohi had been busy, and Riko had said that the basketball team would be watching a Shutoku match.

So it was just me and Isa.

She was waiting outside of the bowling alley for me, looking very bored.

Let me tell you a bit more about Isa, since the only other time I had mentioned her had been fleeting on its own.

Contrary to me, she's _very_ tall, standing at a solid 193 centimeters. She's deceivingly strong - she _had_ been quite violent during her middle school years to my parents' chagrin. Otherwise, she looks very much like me - dark hair and bright green eyes. But she almost always looks annoyed, which is rather putting-off.

"Isa." I called out, as I got within shouting distance.

She immediately perked up, a pointed grin lighting up her dark expression. "Rin! You're here! Great, let's go."

As we ambled inside, she checked us in. "Two for lane fourteen, under the name Kobayashi Isa. Rin's shoe size is a 23.5 and mine are 29.5." she told the worker, a freckled teenager whose eyes darted between the two of us.

"Are you two... together?" he asked, passing us shoes over the counter.

"She's my sister," I replied curtly, slipping off my sneakers and setting them on the tabletop.

An unabashed grin grew on his face. "Then, wanna ditch the kid, Isa-chan?"

I stared. Sure, my sister was pretty, but wasn't she a bit intimidating...?

My sister smiled back politely - I did a double take - and slipped off her own shoes. _And_ then she threw each of them at the worker.

"Piss off, mate." she suggested, snatching her bowling slippers from the marble counter, a snarl darkening her fairer features. "I'm not into toddlers."

My sister turned on her heel - she really knew how to make an impression, that one - and stomped away, dark hair fluttering behind her.

I cast the worker an apologetic look, but followed after her. He deserved it, anyway.

* * *

Another thing you might want to note about Isa... she's really competitive. Even though I didn't stand a chance, she proceeded to crush me like I was Inku and she was Teikou Middle. Yeah, it was that bad.

(Though I was fairly sure that she had chosen bowling for the sole reason that she was brilliant at it and I was more than dreadful.)

"Yes!" she cheered, pounding a fist into the air. "Another strike!"

I sighed. She had monopolized the entire bowling alley - whenever a group or couple would approach the nearby lanes, she would 'miss' (which was impossible, since she was perfect at this game) and throw the ball in their direction. I had attempted to stop her, but she told me it was an accident and that it wouldn't happen again.

It happened again.

"Oi, Satsuki." a familiar voice grumbled from behind me. "Isn't that Kobayashi?"

I stiffened, closing my eyes. _Oh god. These two can NOT meet. It'll be the end_.

"Oh, Rin-chan!"

I turned, plastering a smile to my face. "Ah, Satsuki, Aomine-san. I didn't expect to see you here."

Satsuki all but bounced over to me, giving me a painfully tight hug. "Rin-chan! Aomine-kun and I came here with the basketball team. We already won today's preliminary game, so I thought that going bowling would be a big opportunity for team-bonding!"

"So your team is here?" I was a bit surprised. I had never met the Touou team, despite being friends with their manager and (sort of) friends with their ace.

Satsuki seemed to glow. "Oh, you haven't met everyone yet, have you? Great, now you can meet Sakurai-kun, Iwayoshi-senpai and-"

There was a shout from behind them. "It's _you_!"

"Oh, it's Wakka-Wakka."

I closed my eyes. _Isa._

Behind Satsuki, my sister was standing triumphantly, hands on her hips, eye-to-eye with a well-built blonde boy, who looked what can only be described as horrified.

I had almost forgotten that Isa had once been the Newspaper Club member in charge of the Touou basketball team, and had terrorized Wakamatsu to the point of hospitalization. She had broken his nose.

"I thought I got a restraining order!" he shouted, finger pointed directly in her face.

"Clearly, I am very much unrestrained." she looked practically bored, looking past him. "Oh, it's Glasses."

A boy with (as you probably anticipated) glasses blinked back at her. "Kobayashi-senpai, what a pleasant surprise. I see you are playing with someone today - is this your 'Rinny'?"

I shot Isa a look, and she smiled back sheepishly. "You talked about me to your teammates?"

"Guilty as charged."

Glasses smiled at me and I felt a shiver down my spine. _He's a tad intimidating in an entirely different way_. "Imayoshi Shoichi at your service."

I gave a slight nod. "Kobayashi Rin... the pleasure is mine, Imayoshi-san. Oh, I mean, Imayoshi-senpai."

A heavy weight settled on my head. I glanced up to see heavily tanned arms crossed. "Ya don't have to treat the ol' captain with such respect, Kobayashi. After all, he's not as good as I am."

I wrinkled my nose. "Please unhand me, Aomine-san."

With a smirk, he obliged.

"Wakamatsu Kosuke-san, right?" I said, eyes focusing back in on the blonde boy that had claimed a restraining order against my sister. "I remember you from the hospital."

At Aomine's barking laugh, Wakamatsu scowled. "That wasn't my fault, Kobayashi Jr."

"Why am I 'Jr.'?" I asked Satsuki who simply laughed in response.

"Oh, you haven't met Susa-senpai or Sakurai-kun yet!" she grabbed me around the shoulders and pointed me at a tall boy with a sharp jaw. "This is Susa-senpai. Say hi to Susa-senpai, Rin-chan."

"Hello, Susa-senpai." I gave a little wave. "I'm Kobayashi Rin-"

"Oh, Susa." Isa swung an arm around what now appeared to be a very nervous Susa and gave him a little grin. "Good to see you, kid. How's the world treatin' you?"

"Susa-senpai is terrified of Isa-senpai." Satsuki whispered at me. "Probably even more than Wakamatsu-senpai."

I frowned at her. "How did you know that?"

She gave me a weird look in return.

"Oh yeah."

"And this is Sakurai-kun." she pointed at a boy with light brown hair and large brown eyes.

When I turned to greet him, he froze like a deer caught by headlights. "I-I'm sorry!"

"I thought you were Sakurai-san." I was so confused.

The boy's grip on his basketball bag tightened and tears started filling his eyes. "I'm sorry! I'm Sakurai Ryo! I didn't mean to confuse you, I'm sorry!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I got confused for a moment." I apologized back, shrugging slightly. "I'm Kobayashi Rin, nice to meet you, Sakurai-san."

"Oh my god, he's so cute." Isa peered at the boy, completely dwarfing him by almost twenty centimeters. "Where did you get him, Glasses? I want four of them."

"I-I'm sorry?"

Glasses snorted. "Sorry, Kobayashi-senpai, your order can't go through. Sakurai here is one of a kind."

Wakamatsu puffed out his chest in slight pride. "We all are. Sakurai's three-pointer has such a-"

Glasses threw his bag at the blonde. "Wakamatsu, stop talking. We have a representative from Seirin present." grey eyes slanted at me. "Right, Kobayashi-san?"

"You can just call me Rin." I said awkwardly, sniffing a bit. "And, uhh, yeah, I'm from Seirin. I'm actually their Newspaper Club reporter."

"Fascinating." Glasses' eyes seemed to be scrutinizing me, assessing me quickly. "Just like Kobayashi-senpai, huh? You're a bit scrawny, but you have good eyes, don't you? Senpai here had good eyes as well, but yours..." he leaned a bit closer. "You're special, aren't you?"

"Not really." I leaned back a bit, giving him a weird look. "Satsuki has better ones, and Aida Riko-san of Seirin is equally fantastic. I'm quite a ways from their ability."

"Don't be modest." his slanted eyes opened quite a bit. "It's unbecoming."

"Okay, this is getting a bit weird." Isa announced, cutting through the rising tension. "Rin, lets get back to our game while Glasses here contains his raging hard-on, shall we-"

"It's not like that!"

"Why don't we play with you guys?" Satsuki suggested, hopping from foot-to-foot in excitement. "It could be like a competition!"

Aomine scoffed. "Not really a competition. The only one who can beat me is me."

Isa's eyebrows shot up. "Oh really, you nancy boy?"

"N-Nancy boy?!" his eyes narrowed at her and they got face-to-face. She was a bit taller than him, so it would appear that she had the edge, but their eyes were equally blazing, their short tempers long-since flared. "Wanna go, Kobayashi Sr.?"

"Sr.?" she repeated, her jaw going slightly slack. "That's it, you wanna fucking go-"

"-and play a round!" Satsuki interjected, a bright grin glowing on her face. "It can be Kobayashi-senpai versus Aomine-kun! They can pick teams and everything!"

"Even better." Isa's grin was dangerous. "I can prove my superiority to this little shit and teach him some fucking respect."

"Great." Aomine was equally fired up. "I won't lose. A battle's no fun if you don't win."

"Is this a duel?" I asked Satsuki, repeating the words that Kuroko had said so many weeks ago.

Satsuki nodded, cheerfully. "Yes, it is!"

* * *

After picking teams, it was Isa, Susa (he was silently horrified, I'm sure), Sakurai and Wakamatsu on Team Avatar - Wakamatsu had been infuriated, but after a threatening look from Isa, he had agreed.

Aomine had originally wanted to be on a team all by himself, but after some violent prompting from Satsuki, he had reluctantly agreed to taking on a team.

Satsuki, Glasses and I all stood around awkwardly.

Aomine's eyes darted over us. "If any of you lose..." he let his threat hang in the air. "...so don't." he stalked away to pick up his bowling shoes.

I shuddered. I was awful at bowling - even Isa, my own sister, had rejected me from her team, with a quick apology.

"Wait, Aomine-kun!" Satsuki shouted, hurrying after him. "What's our team name?"

"Team Touou." Glasses suggested.

I gave him a dry look. "I'm not even from Touou."

"Oh, I forgot."

"Can we be Team Tetsu-kun?" Satsuki asked, fluttering long pink eyelashes at Aomine, who was unaffected by her feminine charm. "It'll really inspire me to do good."

"It'll really inspire you to do well." I corrected under my breath. Grammar police, present.

Aomine looked rather hesitant about that name, but as Satsuki typed it quickly into the computer tablet, there was no going back.

Team Avatar against Team Tetsu-kun.

Why did I feel like this was going to end in disaster?

* * *

**omfg im so tired ok**

**my mom said if i get an a on my next math test, ill get the harry potter 6 the movie ok so i have a fuckin test to ace**

**so i cut it short lmao**

* * *

**question:**

**if you had to join any basketball team, which one would you join?**

* * *

**Leave a review**

**also there's a profile poll on my, uhh, profile**

**LeoInuyuka**


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